Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Blinding Solar Records

Now that we've entered the shoulder season of spring, Germany's continuing build-out of solar panel capacity is setting records.

This from the Cleantechnica site:

On Monday, the 15th of April, 2013, the approximate 1.3 million solar power systems in Germany set a new domestic/world record by reaching a peak power output of 22.68 GW at noon.
The New Normal
This new record is almost 0.5 GW above the “old” record of 22.2 GW, which was set on May 25th, 2012. Allthough I love celebrating all solar records, the biggest news might be that “just” 22.68 GW is apparently no longer newsworthy in Germany, because above 15-20 GW of solar have become a regularity.
Of course solar doesn't shine so bright in the highest demand periods during the winter; first quarter  production was down overall during what was reportedly a particularly bleak January and February, but production during peak demand periods equaled the performance of previous years.
At 0
During the first quarter Germany had more gas was used for heat, and I'm sure we will soon see more coal used to generate electricity.