Photovoltaic in Germany
In Germany, photovoltaics, which generate electricity from sunlight, government-funded by the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
Area estimates
In Germany in 2010 was the amount of electricity generated 608.7 TWh / year. This corresponds to an average power demand of 71 GW. Assuming that to be able to save both energy loss time of day and the year, would be at an average yield of 900 full-load hours (or kWh / kWp) to install a total of 690 GWp for an energy supply exclusively with photovoltaics. The required area for this depends on the installation: On south-facing sloping roofs only an area of less than 8 square meters per kWp (125 Watt Peak / m²) is required when using high-performance modules per kWp, while the use of thin-film cells on the flanks of the space requirements for about 30 square meters per kWp (33 Watt peak / m²) is situated. This results in a required total 5500-20700 km ². This corresponds to 1.5 to 5.7 % of the total area of Germany. For comparison:
- 2007 occupied the settlement and traffic area 46,789 km ² or 13.4% of the land area of Germany.
- In 2011, energy plants were in Germany on an area 22,800 km ² (equivalent to 6.5% of the land area of Germany ) grown.
- According to Ecofys, more than 2300 km ² are suitable roof and façade surface (0.66 % of the land area of Germany ) for use by PV systems.
A full supply of electricity by the photovoltaic is not considered meaningful due to the large seasonal variations and the associated high memory requirements for Germany. A seek cheaper contribution to a fully renewable electricity supply could be in the order of 200 GWp. Thus, nearly 30 % of Germany 's electricity needs could cover. This would be less than 1 % of the total required Germany and 50% of the appropriate and not otherwise used surfaces. In an annex of about 8 GWp per year (compared installation 2010: 7.4 GWp and 2011: 7.5 GWp ), this share could be realized by 2035.
For ground-mounted photovoltaic plants is expected to approximately 80-100 kWh / m² per year relative to the base of a solar farm, according to 40-50 m², the electrical energy for an average household to produce (4 MWh / year). In facilities on or in buildings and noise barriers no additional area is claimed.
Development, additional construction and actual supply in Germany
From 2000 to 2011, the energy generated by photovoltaic increased from 0,064 TWh to 19 TWh about and thus on the approximately three hundred times. 2010, about 7,400 MW were installed; 2011, there were estimated 7,500 MW.
In the first quarter of 2012, the annex 1,800 MW ( = 1.8 GW ), which set a new record was set up was. Numerous investors accelerated their projects because they feared cuts in federal government or because they wanted to secure the higher payment rates. In the first half of 2012, nearly 4.4 gigawatts were sheeted. In the third quarter of 2012 1.853 MW were built over. 2012 was thus built over a similar magnitude as in the two previous years. 2013, the photovoltaic expansion fell sharply, only 3 GW were reinstalled. On 31 December 2013 35,692 MWp was installed in Germany.
The consulting firm Roland Berger and the forecasters AG hold by 2020 solar capacity of up to 70 GWp realistic. This photovoltaics could provide theoretically ten percent of Germany's electricity needs. Alone on roof surfaces, there is a potential for 161 GWp solar power, such as the Technical University of Munich and Siemens have recently calculated.
The theoretical full load hours in the following table show how the use of solar energy can vary due to weather conditions, and are closely related to the sunshine duration, ie with the number of hours of sunshine a year. The average sunshine duration is 1550 hours per year in Germany. Here, however, must be taken into consideration that the full-load hours do not meet the duty cycle, but represent an imputed value that results from the quotient between standard capacity and peak power of the PV system. The actual duty cycle, in which the system generates electricity corresponds to approximately half a year, or about 4400 hours.
According to the solar radiation intensity photovoltaics in the midday reaches its power peak ( "peak" ) in the morning and evening hours, the injected current is substantially lower. In Germany most of the current clock in the morning between 8:00 to 19:00 clock is required at night. Due to the natural compliance of the load profile of electricity consumption with the temporal distribution of photovoltaic infeed reduces the need to drive peak load power plants.
The Internet can be found on the EEX transparency platform the daily calculation of the power profile and the production data for electrical energy for Germany and Austria broken down by type of production and control areas. For Germany, the measured PV data from the four control areas are reported and have been since the beginning of the messages on July 19, 2010, to retrieve. Also, a calculation of the current power profile of the installed photovoltaic in Germany with visualization by zip code areas is available at an inverter manufacturer. The four transmission system operators in Germany have been using 2010/2011 for the planning of control power, among other things, the calculations of large operators of data portals to photovoltaic systems a. Their calculations are always based on performance and yield of about 10 % of the installed power plant in Germany.
On May 25, 2012 at 12:45 clock a capacity of 22.4 gigawatts was achieved in Germany, whereby the peak load time accounted for approximately one third of the total electricity production in photovoltaics. This corresponds approximately to the performance of 15 large nuclear power plants. Since February 2012, the feed-in covers relatively reliable from a large part of the daily average and peak load. Conventional power plants need to increase their power almost exclusively in the twilight phases. This is also reflected by significantly lower electricity prices on the electricity market. It is anticipated that with further construction of new plants, the conventional power plants have to curb their power reinforced around noon, which is problematic especially with sluggish power plants, especially nuclear power plants. In addition, the utilization of peaking plants, which may make their economic operation in question decreases. In May 2012, according to BDEW more than 4 billion kWh of solar electricity were produced, making about 10 % of electricity consumption this month was met by solar power. From the measured data, also can read that in the summer half-year performance varies nationwide between about 30 and 90 % of the available capacity. In the winter half year, it is usually between 10 and 50 %. At present there are in the Federal Republic of Germany about 1.2 million solar power systems.
Situation of the German solar industry
Due to cheaper mass production in Asia and massive price drop of solar modules some German solar companies filed for bankruptcy. Companies like Solar Millennium, Solar Hybrid, and Q -Cells are affected. Last Bosch also announced his withdrawal from the business crystalline photovoltaics.
The trade dispute between European, American and Chinese manufacturers came to a head in 2012. The European Commission initiated an anti - dumping cases against China. In May 2013, the EU Commission imposed punitive tariffs against China, as the country sold by enormous government subsidies under the cost. The U.S. has enacted punitive tariffs 18-250 percent by the end of 2012 due to similar trade disputes.
Green politicians such as Hans -Josef Fell warned to foreclose the European markets by punitive tariffs, despite the unfair competition policies of China. The vast majority of jobs in the solar industry is just in the areas of project developers and installers that are native and in fact could not be imported from China. Instead, a fair market access in the Asian market should be backed up. A study of forecasters expects that punitive tariffs could threaten up to 240,000 jobs in Germany.
The observed decline in prices, however, is ecologically positive rate, since PV has become dramatically more cost-effective and thus financially viable within a few years.
Installed capacity in the provinces
The table shows the installed electric net rated power according to the information collected by the Federal Network Agency Power Plant list of 12 December 2012.