Seemingly determined to put an end to speculation that solar photovoltaics (PV) can't "scale" quickly enough to make a dent in electricity consumption, the German solar industry continues to break records, industry veteran Paul Gipe reports. According to the latest data Germany's solar industry added another 1,000 MW during July and August. This brings the total for the eight-month period from January through August to 4,900 MW from nearly 175,000 solar installations. Thus solar PV installations to date in 2010 are capable of generating slightly less than 5 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity under German conditions, Gipe emphasizes.
2% of German electricity supply with solar PV
New installations of solar PV during the first eight months of 2010 are capable of providing 0.86% or nearly 1% of the country's electricity. At the current pace of development, Germany will add about 6,000 MW of PV for all of 2010 or more than enough to provide 1% of electricity supply. Germany currently meets approximately 1% of its supply with solar PV. With the 2010 additions, the country will meet 2% of its supply with solar PV. "Critics of solar energy have often charged that solar could not be scaled or installed quickly enough to have a significant effect on electricity supply. It is now clear that solar PV can indeed scale where the policies are designed to do so", Gipe says.
