Solar energy - a (German) success story | 48 comments (48 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

The one for wind? Why?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 04:28:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Because it puts the tarrif for solar in perspective. The lines for wholesale power prices with and without taxes would also be useful. Speaking of. Ive been trying to find numbers for actual output from german solar on a more fine grained basis than "Per year". Google is being remarkably unhelpful. So are the free resources of the IEA, the german economic ministry and eurostat. A breakdown of how much of the german feedin tarrif is paid to each renewable sector is also eluding me. Am I just being a complete failure at googling or is this stuff really all behind paywalls?

by Thomas on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 04:44:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (4.00 / 2)

Because it puts the tarrif for solar in perspective.

On a graph not showing the solar feed-in tariff but showing the solar module price index?... In addition, to repeat this to you yet again, there is not much perspective to be given by comparing feed-in tariffs for different technologies. All aim to give new technologies the chance to bring down prices by technological development and the realisation economies of scale on a stable sub-market. And you can cry insane all you want, but show me another technology that brought down prices 58% in five and a half years, with feed-in laws or without.

In the meantime, I prepared a first graph showing a comparison that may make sense, one between the feed-in rate and the module price index, this time showing the Y axis starting at zero:

However, I think a log graph makes more sense than one with the Y axis starting at zero:

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 05:22:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (none / 0)

Ooops, I forgot to edit the diagram titles, will do so in case I re-post.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 05:31:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (none / 0)

The lines for wholesale power prices with and without taxes would also be useful.

This one is without taxes. The relevant tax is VAT, which is 19% since January 2007, and was 16% before.

Regarding intra-year solar output and a breakup of EEG costs, I'll look for those later today.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 05:29:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (none / 1)

Have you tried these?

Leipziger Strombörse
Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft
BSW Solar

by Katrin on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 06:31:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (none / 0)

Thank you very much. Exactly what I was looking for.

by Thomas on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 07:12:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More data available (none / 1)

Some comments on those sources:

Leipziger Strombörse: you can display or download hourly production data there, unfortunately, only for each chosen day separately.
BDEV: the interesting part is in the document titled "Energie-Info: Erneuerbare Energien und das EEG: Zahlen, Fakten, Grafiken (2011)" linked on the right. There is a monthly production graph for PV on page 12 (and for wind on the previous page). You'll find a bar graph showing the time evolution until 2010 of both production and feed-in payouts on page 37 (and the same with an estimate for 2011 and a projection until 2016 on page 65). The evolution of the difference between feed-in payouts and market price, as well as the annual average market price, is shown on page 32 (with the warning that the 'market price' of fed-in electricity is calculated on the basis of time averages, thus the merit order effect is not included).
BSW-Solar: you'll find a price - feed-in rate degression comparison similar to mine on page 4. The structure of the electricity price for non-industry consumers is shown on page 6, with a prediction for price increase until 2016 and the factors in it.

Some additional sources:

EEG-KWK-G: this page links pdfs with the annual feed-in payout statistics (third tables, "EEG-Vergütungen in Euro").
SFV (click "Alle Jahre"): this is an association that tracks the production of (at present) thousands of single installations. They have tables for average monthly production per generating capacity (with two methods of averaging) back to 1991.

Finally, on what the feed-in law is about. From the feed-in law itself. Last year I quoted longer passages, here I reproduce the part relevant to the PV price reductions achieved (with my emphasis from back then kept):

...die Technologien zur Erzeugung von Strom aus Erneuerbaren Energien [müssen] laufend fortentwickelt werden. Dies trifft insbesondere für die Fotovoltaik zu. Um diesen Prozess zu fördern, werden die Vergütungssätze dieses Gesetzes nach Energieträgern und teilweise auch technologiespezifisch differenziert sowie degressiv ausgestaltet. Dadurch wird ein Anreiz zu Innovation und Effizienz gesetzt. Darüber hinaus ist die reale Preisentwicklung zu berücksichtigen. Ziel ist es, die Techniken zur Erzeugung von Strom aus Erneuerbaren Energien möglichst schnell zur vollständigen preislichen Konkurrenzfähigkeit gegenüber den konventionellen Energien zu verhelfen...

...the technologies to generate electricity from renewable energies have to be developed further continuously. This is true above all for photovoltaics. To foster this process, the feed-in rates of this law are shaped in a way that it differentiates according to energy source and partly also according to technology, and is degressive. That way, the incentive for innovation and efficiency is set. Furthermore, the real price development is to be considered. The goal is to help technologies that generate electricity from renewable energies achieve complete price competitiveness vs. conventional energies as quickly as possible...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 14th, 2012 at 04:40:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Solar energy - a (German) success story | 48 comments (48 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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