1.8 GW of Midsize German Solar Installations Due to Feed-in Tariffs

March 25th, 2011 by Susan Kraemer

German rooftops about this size accounted for over 1.8 GW of solar that was installed there last year. German solar power has been very rapidly expanding, because it has generous Feed-in Tariffs that pay solar owners to make power for the grid. This is a sensible policy, as the prospect of earning money is what motivates people to overcome procrastination on solar, as Al Gore pointed out a few years ago when he went to congress and suggested the electranet.

But the size of the systems with the most growth is interesting. As you can see from the graph below the jump, thanks to Paul Gipe at Energy Bulletin, it is not the small homeowner-sized systems that is driving this increase, so much as the next size up, that is leading the surge in solar in Germany. A ten to thirty kilowatt system takes up a larger (usable) space than most homes have – and can generate a sizable excess to the grid – for cash.

The roof of this house from the German prefab company Huf Haus has been maximized for a 30 KW to 40KW system, to make some serious money by selling power off the roof. But most houses were not designed to be such efficient solar power stations!

Typically, you need a commercial building-sized space. For 30 KW, you need about 1,500 square feet of usable space. Many houses, even though they may have an adequate footprint, are made unusable for large solar by all the little gables and tree shading they can have.

But this is about the size of the roofs in Germany that are supplying the most in this graph. So it looks as if Huf Haus type McMansions, as well as churches, farm fields and small commercial buildings, are supplying the most growth in German solar.

The next size up, 30 – 100 MW would be made possible by the space on big box stores, or college parking lots. And to build a 1 MW system, you’d need about a whole city block – so this would be only possible on large apartment complexes, universities or large-scale manufacturing plants like BMW.

The under 10 KW systems accounted for the least growth. Since most German homes probably need 4 to 8 KW systems just to supply their own needs, because of their insolation and mod cons, it would appear that the financial incentive of the Feed-in Tariff amount to be earned on a much smaller excess is lacking. The potential earnings are not enough to overcome the inertia. Feed-in Tariffs have driven Spain, Germany and Italy to world leadership in solar (Italy’s solar is growing at 3 times the pace of the USA using Feed-in Tariffs) but what this graph graphically illustrates is that the earnings have to be worth it.

Susan Kraemer@Twitter

SCE Buys 20 Years of Solar Power for Less than Natural Gas (cleantechnica.com)
Ontario Gets Another 40 Renewable Projects With Generous Feed-in Tariff (cleantechnica.com)
Washington Utility Proves Home Solar and Wind Too Pricey? (cleantechnica.com)
UK solar panel subsidies slashed (bbc.co.uk)

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Tags: al gore, electranet, Germany

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

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James A. Burt

We need to implement FITs to ramp solar up at a rate of 100% per year until solar production reaches 1 Terawatt per year.
http://www.konscious.ca/blog Antoine Palmer

Hi Susan,

I think you mean 1.8 GW? From Paul’s article http://bit.ly/gN0RrV, the total solar installed in 2010 was 7.4 GW. And from the graph you posted, 1.8 GW was installed in the 10-30kW range.
- http://www.konscious.ca Antoine
  
  And to keep it in perspective, 7.4 GW is an impressive number. Germany has a lot of solar power, and their total capacity is about 17 GW and 2% of total electricity production. Effectively they almost doubled their capacity in 2010.
  
  I live in Alberta. Total nameplate capacity here is about 12 GW. There are almost 4 million people here. Over 70% of our electricity comes from coal.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  Woops. Fixed!
http://www.siesol.mx Calentadores Solares Siesol

This is espectacular wow!
Christof

Ok, so Germany’s solar numbers are way cool — but not to be trite, wow, what a cool looking solar-powered house. I want one!
http://frontloadwasherreviews.blogspot.com Bryan

My parents just told me yesterday that they are getting solar installed on their roof. Problem is, even with the tax credits, and reduced electric bill, and the renewable energy credits, the investment is still going to take at best about 10 years to pay for itself. This operates on the assumption that these energy credits that they’re getting paid for, which they say are worth about 225/MW generated stay around the whole time. Still seems like a risky investment, at least here in Pennsylvania.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  How long will your parents’ car take to pay for itself? How about their fridge? Their big tv? Sometimes we put greater expectations on solar than it should be required to meet. We know solar has a lifespan of 30-40 yrs (so far), because the original ones built in the 70s are still producing. Does their car?
  
  The fact is that even if it takes ten years to “pay for itself”, the next ten years they’ll have free electricity, and another ten years after that of free electricity – and very possibly another ten after that even… when your parents are reaaally going to appreciate that free electricity. It could well make the difference financially between being able to afford to live in their home or not, when they get old.
  
  So, don’t just look critically at the first ten years. Look at the whole life of a solar installation.
http://diyhomebuiltsolar.com DIY Solar

Leave it to the Europeans to lead the way in alternative energy production. As usual the United States is far behind and will maybe catch up in 10 or 15 years.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  Trouble is that 10 or 15 years is going to be too late to catch up, after China and Europe have built theirs and have electricity. Peak oil is going to make it harder to build anything requiring heavy fossil fuel use, so 400 ft steel turbines are going to be very expensive to build by then.