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Germany Going Solar, Big Time

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Taosman

Taosman

Your Cousin In New Mexxico
It's the Germans that are showing us the way to renewable energy use.
Feed Law Powers Germany to New Renewable Energy Record

Architect of German feed law begins U.S. book tour on February 15th in San Francisco.
by Paul Gipe, Contributing Writer
German farmers, homeowners and industrialists set a world record for the development of renewable energy in 2006. Using the country's pioneering electricity feed law, Germans invested more than U.S.$10 billion in new sources of renewable energy last year, including wind turbines, solar panels and biogas power plants.
Germany installed an astounding 100,000 solar systems in 2006, representing 750 MW of solar-electric generation. This follows on the back-to-back record-setting years of 2005 (750 MW), and 2004 (600 MW).

Germany's feed law permits homeowners and farmers to connect their solar power systems to the grid and pays them a fair price for their electricity. This simple system has led Germany to world leadership in wind, solar and biogas electricity generation. Germany operates more wind generation, more solar systems and more biogas plants than any other country on earth.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47322
 
ShellSolar-Pocking2.jpg

The ribbon was cut on the World's largest continguous solar plant on 27th April 2006 in Germany. Construction on the 40 million euro (US$48 million) photovoltaic installation started August 2005. This plant demonstrates new standards in cost-efficiency for solar power. Using the master-slave inverter concept developed by Shell, the plant delivers the optimized energy output. Also, flexible installation technology--such as the use of either aluminum, wood or steel racks depending on material prices and the foundation on either concrete or piles--optimizes the costs. And if solar is viable in Germany, just imagine the efficiencies possible where the sun really shines!
 
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This needs to be done more here In the USA. I once read an article about one guy out west who set up solar and was selling power back to the Elec comp. His was still in the development stage so I guess the Germans are way ahead of us in that too.
 
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Best Buckeye;823128; said:
This needs to be done more here In the USA. I once read an article about one guy out west who set up solar and was selling power back to the Elec comp. His was still in the development stage so I guess the Germans are way ahead of us in that too.
Click to expand...

the US is actually very slow to transition new technology into maintstream life.
 
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Best Buckeye;823128; said:
This needs to be done more here In the USA. I once read an article about one guy out west who set up solar and was selling power back to the Elec comp. His was still in the development stage so I guess the Germans are way ahead of us in that too.
Click to expand...
There was a show on the History Channel (I believe it was an episode of Modern Marvels) a couple of years ago that detailed how there are some programs available in the southwest US where homeowners are given an incentive to go solar with rebates and tax deductions. The meters even spin backwards so that readers can properly credit you if you provide more power to your grid than you use.
 
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Good article here:

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/01/practical_values.html

There are state incentives for California, New Jersey, New York, and Arizona that may cut your install cost in half, as well as a nationwide tax incentive program ($2,000 credit) that expires this year for everybody.

If you are in a high-rate state where power is expensive, you could see a return on your investment in as little as five years.

Using that article's estimate of a $22,000 install cost (< $20K for Ohio after rebates), in my case it'd pay for itself in under seven years, and that presumes my power consumption stays the same and the rate doesn't go up. I paid $1020 to AEP last year for electric, and over $2600 to the city for all other utilities, 2/3rds of that bill was gas (winter heating & hot water). I'd guess I spend $3,000 a year on power that could be provided almost entirely by solar energy.
 
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