An Energy from Thorium member, Cyril R, provided me with a link to
a new web page that charts the performance of Germany's installed Photovoltaic capacity. This link provides some measures of how well German PV is performing on a real time and daily basis. For example, it is currently 2:28 PM on November 20, 2010. Germany's 15.17 GWs of installed PV capacity is currently producing 1.8 GWs of electricity, already well past its peak output for today. 1.8 GWs of electrical output, is 12% of installed capacity, and that already represents a substantial drop from the system maximum noon time power output. Another graft on the same web page indicates that no power was generated before 7:30 AM German time this morning, and power output will be back to zero by 4:15 PM this afternoon. Thus electrical output German PV is anticipated for less than 1/3rd of today. During the time it has so far taken me to write this paragraph, German PV output has dropped over 10% more, to 1.6 GW.
According to a story in the New York Times, Germany expects to spend
120 billion euros ($184 billion) in public support (for Solare PV generating facilities) by 2015.
Yet there is only enough sunshine in Germany to generate electricity for 1528 hours a year or less than 20% of the time.
I should pause her to tell you that it is now 2:55 PM in Germany and electrical generation from Solar PV sources has dropped to 1.3 GWs. In an hour and 20 minutes that figure will be down to zero. Is Germany's enormous investment in Solar PV a worthwhile alternative to nuclear power? Of course not. We are talking about an impossible fantasy.
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