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UK and Germany break solar power records

Sunny weather boosts solar power generation, providing estimated 7.8% of UK
electricity in daylight hours of solstice

Lines of solar panels near Truro, England. Sunny weather has helped solar power set
new records in the UK. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

John Vidal
Monday 23 June 2014 10.26 EDT

Britain and Germany have broken records for generating solar electricity in the
last few weeks, according to new industry gures.
Germany generated over half its electricity demand from solar for the rst time
ever on 9 June, and the UK, basking in the sunniest weather of summer during
the longest days of the year, nearly doubled its 2013 peak solar power output
at the solstice weekend.

France, Italy, Denmark and other countries are also believed to have generated
record amounts in June.
According to UK trade body the Solar Trade association (STA), the total UK
installed solar capacity generated from homes, buildings and solar farms is now
about 4.7 gigawatts compared to 2.7GW in July last year.
It is not possible to tell exactly how much solar power was generated in Britain
because electricity from small-scale household units is not centrally measured,
but the STA estimated on Monday that 3.9% of the UK's electricity demand was
met by solar photovoltaic systems (PV) over the 24 hours of Saturday.
This means solar's contribution peaked at a record 7.8% of daytime electricity,
on 21 June, said the association.
"Britain has virtually doubled its capacity in the last year, with 80,000 more
installations, including several thousand larger scale commercial ones," said Ray
Noble, a consultant at the UK National Solar Centre.
"There are now 530,000 installations in the UK, of which 510,000 are domestic
small scale ones. Last weekend we estimate they generated about 8% of
daytime electricity in total," said Noble.
"We think that this is likely to double again within a year. There is nothing to
stop it getting to 30-40% of UK electricity at this time of year," he said.
The gures were welcomed by UK energy minister Greg Barker, who was
criticised in May for removing subsidies for large-scale solar farms. "We have
put ourselves among the world leaders on solar and this ambitious strategy will
place us right at the cutting edge.
"There is massive potential to turn our large buildings into power stations and
we must seize the opportunity this oers to boost our economy as part of our
long term economic plan.
"Solar not only benets the environment, it will see British job creation and
deliver the clean and reliable energy supplies that the country needs at the
lowest possible cost to consumers."

Germany, with 1.4m PV systems, generated a peak of 23.1GW hours at

lunchtime on Monday 9 June, equivalent to 50.6% of its total electricity need.
According to government development agency Germany trade and invest
(GTAI), solar power grew 34% in the rst ve months of 2014 compared to last
year.
Europe added 10.9GW of PV capacity in 2013, said the European photovoltaic
industry association (Epia), bringing the total installed capacity to over 81GW
on the continent.
"This represents a 16% increase compared to the year before and about 59%
of the world's cumulative photovoltaic capacity," said a spokesman. "2013 was
a record year for the UK, with 1.5GW installed last year. Germany installed
3.3GW, Italy 1.4GW, Romania 1.1GW and Greece 1.04GW."
But new gures from the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute suggest
Europe is no longer the biggest market for solar power.
In 2013, says the EPI report, China added "at least" 11.3GW and is now the
second largest generator of solar power after Germany, and the US added
some 4.8GW, increasing its total capacity by 65% to 12GW.
"PV remains the most rapidly-growing energy technology by a wide margin.
Indeed, global PV installations for 2014 should reach at least 40,000
megawatts, expanding world PV capacity by another 30 percent," says author J
Matthew Roney.
California now has more than 240,000 small-scale solar installations on
commercial and residential roofs across the state that amount to more than
2,200 MW of generation capacity.
The US gure was greatly augmented by 25 new large-scale solar projects
including the largest solar plant in the world in the Mojave desert 40 miles
southwest of Las Vegas.
Elsewhere, Canada added 440 megawatts to reach 1.2GW in 2013, Mexico
nearly doubled its PV capacity to 100MW and is expected to reach 240MW by
the end of 2014 and Japan, spurred by the closure of nuclear power plants
following Fukushima more than doubled its capacity by adding 6.9GW in 2013.

According to the European photovoltaic industry report, solar power is

expected to grow 20% a year over the next few years.
Solar power
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