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Germany myths and reality in the energy sector.
Of course, the Internet has its positive and negative points, just as social networks - for the most part - have the power that news or events are not selected, they are retweeted. At the same time, we can check in a more or less simple way if the news promoted by a media outlet is real.
In this case we look at Germany and its "apparent" revolution in the renewables sector. For many, today, a Top-Ten to follow in the energy field. Where phrases like "Germany revolutionizes renewables" or "Germany produces half of its energy through the sun" refreshes the reader's conscience as a country to follow.
At this point I always like to remember an article that we made in this portal … "The infoxication of the certification process" Where we evoked Pommer's law …“A person's opinion can change after reading information about it on the Internet. The nature of change is such that it goes from having no opinion to having a wrong opinion ”… This is called Infoxication.
Focusing on the subject of the article, firstly a significant act from the European Union; Germany is among the 24 EU countries that DO NOT comply with the European Directive on Energy Efficiency 2012/27 / EU.
Second, we review the capacity of Germany in producing solar energy with a simple reference to official statistics (HERE - In German automatic download PDF) for the generation of electricity, being quite simple what they tell us.
Last year, only 4.5% of gross electricity generation in Germany came from solar panels. Actually 46% of electricity generation comes from coal, and just over half of the coal that powers Germany comes from burning "Lignite", one of the most polluting forms of electricity generation on the planet.
“As Germany continues to expand solar and wind power, the government's decision to phase out nuclear power means it must now rely heavily on the dirtiest form of coal, lignite, to generate electricity. The result is that after two decades of progress, the country's CO2 emissions are increasing. ” (Access to the news HERE)
Clarifying that this endpoint in CO2 emissions is a worrying issue that Germany is trying to address by renovating its coal plants.
These statistics make it clear that the "solar revolution" in Germany is far from reality, now being more hype and illusion than a feasible topic.
More worrying is the growth of coal plants in Germany. At the end of last year it had a total of 36 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, producing 28.3 terawatt hours of electricity. However, between the years 2011 and 2015 Germany is making its way into the coal sector with 10.7 gigawatts in its coal power plants.
Consulting firm Poyry projects that these new coal-fired power plants will have an average capacity factor of 80%.If so, they will have an annual production on average of 75 terawatt hours.. In other words, within five years Germany will have a capacity to produce annual electricity via coal more than double that of all its solar panels.
Another question that we must understand, that Germany is not the perfect country to have solar panels installed. On average, only 46% of the time sunlight can be harnessed. Obviously, on a very sunny day you can obtain a large amount of energy based on solar panels, but what matters is not the peaks, it is the annual average.
Solar radiation in Germany varies greatly throughout the year. Germany's daily solar panel performance peaked last year on July 21, when the panels produced 20.9% of daily electricity demand. By contrast, the worst day of the year was January 18, when solar panels produced just over 0.1% of Germany's electricity demand. The truth is that nobody talks about this last piece of information!
And if we make calculations of the advances that Germany will have in the production of solar energy. The German government has set a long-term goal of increasing its solar installations per year to be able to produce between 2.5 and 3.5 gigawatts.
If we adopt the highest figure 3.5 gigawatts installed in each year, Germany would need around almost 90 years to reach 50% of electricity supply based on solar energy, not counting the necessary renovations in its solar installations or the problem of storage energetic.
Leaving the data aside, obviously Germany is making progress in the sector of renewable energy, both in getting rid of energy dependence and in improving before the economic savings involved in using renewable energy, a point that many EU countries are forgetting, without detracting from the fact that Germany is the leader in Energy Efficiency worldwide among the 16 main economies of the world, but an energy revolution in the renewables sector needs time, money ahead and a clear political will that is often truncated by "hidden" interests.
