Germany smashes solar power world record

[gnome]

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2187/991/Going_nuclear-free:_Germany_smashes_solar_power_world_record.htm l

Going nuclear-free: Germany smashes solar power world recordMay 27, 2012 5:51

http://www.hangthebankers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/factory-feldheim-brandenburg-solar.n.jpg (http://www.hangthebankers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/factory-feldheim-brandenburg-solar.n.jpg)Germany’s solar power plants produced a record 22 gigawatts of energy on Friday, equivalent to the output of 20 nuclear plants. The country is already a world-leader in solar power and hopes to be free of nuclear energy by 2022.

Advertisement
The director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, northeast Germany, said the solar power delivered to the national grid on Saturday met 50 per cent of the nation’s energy quota.
“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity. Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over,” Norbert Allnoch told Reuters news agency.

The German government decided to turn its back on nuclear energy last year after the Fukushima disaster and plans to be nuclear-free by 2022. Critics have rounded on the initiative, skeptical that renewable sources can meet the nation’s growing energy needs.

[Carl]

I wonder, for how many seconds was 22 gigawatts of solar power generated?

And how come none of these solar power articles ever talk about power storage?

:hmmmm2:

[shades]

I wonder, for how many seconds was 22 gigawatts of solar power generated?

And how come none of these solar power articles ever talk about power storage?

:hmmmm2:

Power storage exists nowadays and is less of a problem than you might think, but it requires initial investment as it isn't cheap. Cheaper than nuclear power in the long run probably.

They should all be going Thorium reactor really, but... they're not..

[gnome]

I wonder, for how many seconds was 22 gigawatts of solar power generated?

Yeah, me too, but a new record is a new record, and new records are set in solar every week, whether it is total capacity or efficiency or cheaper panels. 22gw is a lot of energy - and that is only from power plants, not from residential installations.

By comparison, the United States, with much greater solar resources, has maybe a total of 5gw of solar capacity, even though we have vastly superior natural resources land area and sunshine.



And how come none of these solar power articles ever talk about power storage?

:hmmmm2:

The article did mention concerns about stability of the energy supply, which alludes to the storage problem, but didn't address it directly.

The issue they really sidestepped was at what cost? The german consumers pay more for solar - but as a society they have agreed to that, especially since their decision to forego nuclear after Fukushima.

In my opinion, the intermittent nature of solar is somewhat overblown. Electricity demand is typically highest at midday in summer - exactly when PV production peaks. Wind power complements solar, often peaking opposite of solar at winter and dusk, dawn or overnight. Hydro, tidal, wave power, geothermal, waste-to-energy are 24/7. Yes, storage is needed, but in a mix of renewables that problem is not insurmountable. The design below is case in point.





Thermosolar power station in Spain works at nightMarch 18, 2012 (http://phys.org/archive/18-03-2012/) by Katell Abiven
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/panelsreflec.jpgEnlarge (http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/panelsreflec.jpg)
The Torresol Energy Gemasolar plant in Fuentes de Andalucia near Seville. The unique thermosolar power station in southern Spain can shrug off cloudy days: energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night.


A unique thermosolar power station in southern Spain can shrug off cloudy days: energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night.


The Gemasolar station, up and running since last May, stands out in the plains of Andalusia.
From the road between Seville and Cordoba, one can see its central tower lit up like a beacon by 2,600 solar mirrors, each 120 square metres (28,500 square feet), that surround it in an immense 195-hectare (480-acre) circle.
"It is the first station in the world that works 24 hours a day, a solar power station that works day and night!" said Santago Arias, technical director of Torresol Energy, which runs the station.
The mechanism is "very easy to explain," he said: the panels reflect the suns rays on to the tower, transmitting energy at an intensity 1,000 times higher than that of the sun's rays reaching the earth.
Energy is stored in a vat filled with molten salts at a temperature of more than 500 degrees C (930 F). Those salts are used to produce steam to turn the turbines and produce electricity.
It is the station's capacity to store energy that makes Gemasolar so different because it allows the plant to transmit power during the night, relying on energy it has accumulated during the day.
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/1-renewableene.jpg
Enlarge (http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/1-renewableene.jpg)
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (left) with Spain's King Juan Carlos at last year's opening of the solar power plant. Torresol Energy is a joint venture between the Spanish engineering group Sener, which holds 60 percent, and Abu Dhabi-financed renewable energy firm Masdar.
"I use that energy as I see fit, and not as the sun dictates," Arias explained.As a result, the plant produces 60 percent more energy than a station without storage capacity (http://phys.org/tags/storage+capacity/) because it can work 6,400 hours a year compared to 1,200-2,000 hours for other solar power stations, he said.
"The amount of energy we produce a year is equal to the consumption of 30,000 Spanish households," Arias said, an annual saving of 30,000 tonnes of CO2.
Helped by generous state aid, renewable energies have enjoyed a boom in Spain, the world number two in solar energy and the biggest wind power (http://phys.org/tags/wind+power/) producer in Europe, ahead of Germany.
For the Gemasolar solar product, foreign investors (http://phys.org/tags/foreign+investors/) helped too: Torresol Energy is a joint venture between the Spanish engineering group Sener, which holds 60 percent, and Abu Dhabi-financed renewable energy firm Masdar.
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/gemasolarsto.jpg
Enlarge (http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/gemasolarsto.jpg)
It is the station's capacity to store energy that makes Gemasolar so different because it allows the plant to transmit power during the night, relying on energy it has accumulated during the day.
"This type of station is expensive, not because of the raw material we use, which is free solar energy (http://phys.org/tags/energy/), but because of the enormous investment these plants require," Arias said.The investment cost exceeds 200 million euros ($260 million).


But "the day when the business has repaid that money to the banks (in 18 years, he estimates), this station will become a 1,000-euro note printing machine!," he said, recalling that oil prices have soared from $28 a barrel in 2003 to nearly $130.

[gnome]

I wonder, for how many seconds was 22 gigawatts of solar power generated?

here's the answer

18480
18482

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/05/31/in-depth-germanys-22-gw-solar-energy-record/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

[gnome]

Another month, another record... while 4.5% of total electricity demand may not seem like a lot...a growth rate of 50% per year is just stunning.


Germany Sets a New Solar Power Record – 14.7 TWh in 6 months

http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2012/07/2012-Solar-Record-500x300.jpg (http://cleantechnica.com/2012/07/04/germany-sets-a-new-solar-power-record-14-7-twh-in-6-months/2012-solar-record/)
German solar power producers have once again set a new world record in solar energy production by pumping 14.7 TWh of electricity into the power grid during the first 6 months of 2012. That’s 4.5% of the total power production during that period. Considering that solar power isn’t baseload power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant), those TWh’s came in the form of valuable peak-load power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaking_power_plant) covering 10-50% of peak demand every day.
This record also represents a 50% increase over solar power production during the same period in 2011, something that becomes shockingly obvious considering that photovoltaic power produced a total of 19 TWh’s during the 12 months of 2011.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1gTbO) (http://s.tt/1gTbO)

[Professur]

There's a group in Scotland working to smooth the generation curve by using all generated power to pump water up a cliff to a reservoir. It then falls through a classic hydro system/turbine generator for on demand power. At the moment, they're testing it for tidal power .. the up and down of the waves actioning a piston to pump the water up hill. There was a report (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/01/edison_battery_speeded_up/) of another group that's using graphene to improve Edison iron batteries 1000 fold.

[gnome]

There's a group in Scotland working to smooth the generation curve by using all generated power to pump water up a cliff to a reservoir. It then falls through a classic hydro system/turbine generator for on demand power. At the moment, they're testing it for tidal power .. the up and down of the waves actioning a piston to pump the water up hill. There was a report (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/01/edison_battery_speeded_up/) of another group that's using graphene to improve Edison iron batteries 1000 fold.

That seems somewhat inefficient to go through converting mechanical energy from wind to electricity to pump water to generate electricity later. It would make more sense to pump the water with mechanical wind pumps, but maybe that's not where the wind is. :36_1_63:


Storage technologies are great and will help smooth things out. But the storage problem for electricity is somewhat overblown. Solar is idea for meeting peak demand because it peaks exactly when demand peaks - midday in summer. Wind tends to peak in the evenings and in winter, so the two complement each other nicely. There is also the new gemasolar plant in Spain which produces power 24/7.

[gnome]

This video from 2008 includes a lot of footage of the man who is behind Germany's renewable energy revolution. I would consider this required viewing if you have any interest in energy markets.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ&feature=player_embedded