Share Of Solar Should Not Be Limited By Capacity Factor
Originally published on Lenz Blog.
By Karl-Friedrich Lenz
I recall that I discussed the strange theory of limiting the market share of some variable renewable energy technology by its capacity factor a couple of days ago.
Now Christian Roselund goes into more detail. He agrees with me. There is no reason why the share of solar in some grid or other should be limited by its capacity factor.
And as Roselund explains in that article (citing Craig Morris), capacity factors for solar are low in Germany at only about 10 percent.
That of course means that while the “capacity factor limit” for solar would be 10 percent in Germany, it would be 27.8% in the United States.
I still fail to see why that is supposed to make any sense. If there are any limits to the share of solar in the grid, why would they change by a factor of 2.7 between Germany and the United States?
Reprinted with permission.
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