December 18th, 2019, by Kieran
Cooke
A few years ago its future
looked dim, but new technology is offering Germany’s solar sector a fast new
lease of life.
LONDON, 18 December, 2019 – Not
only does it promise the revival of Germany’s solar sector. It’s also the dream
of any householder keen both to cut back on fuel bills and help in the fight
against climate change – a combined solar and battery unit capable of supplying
power to the home on a 24-hour basis.
Now the dream is being turned
into reality – with Germany leading the way. Over the past five years more than
150,000 German homeowners and small businesses have
installed combined solar and battery storage units.
Advances in technology mean
that battery storage units for an average-sized house can be relatively small –
about the dimensions of a medium-sized fridge.
Solar power for general
household use is supplied from rooftop photovoltaic panels. Additional energy
is fed into the battery storage unit – often placed in a basement – for use at
night or on days when there is no sun.
Popularity rising
If there is more energy than
battery capacity, a digital control system feeds any excess into the grid, with
the owner being compensated by the grid operator.
While sales of the systems are
still relatively small in comparison with Germany’s population of more than 80
million, the units – which let consumers be independent of power companies and
escape increasing energy prices – are proving
ever more popular.
Energy experts say that more
than 50% of rooftop solar systems now being sold in Germany are installed along
with a battery storage facility.
“Before 2013 such combined
systems were not a commercial proposition”, says Kai-Philipp
Kairies, an expert on energy storage technology at Germany’s RWTH
Aachen University.
“What’s happened is that now,
due to greater efficiencies, buyers are getting twice as much battery storage
power for their money”
“Due to advances in battery
storage capabilities and other improvements, sales in Germany over the past
five years have been increasing by 100%, year on year.
“No one really anticipated
this sort of growth, and German companies have been at the forefront of
developments in the sector.”
The switch to small-sized
combined energy systems forms another stage in Germany’s ambitious Energiewende
project – a state-sponsored programme aimed at improving power
efficiency and switching the country’s entire energy sector to renewables by
2050.
The UK-based Rapid Transition Alliance,
which reports on programmes and projects both in the UK and worldwide that are
following Energiewende-type policies, provides extensive further details.
Earlier fade-out
German companies have been
piling into the combined unit sector with more than 40 enterprises at present
involved.
In the past, the big power
companies shied away from solar. In 2012 the head of RWE, Germany’s biggest
energy company, said that giving support to the country’s solar power industry
was like “farming pineapples in Alaska” – it was just not a viable proposition.
Now the giants of the power
industry are entering the market: Shell,
the Dutch-British energy conglomerate, recently purchased Sonnen, Germany’s leading supplier of
home storage batteries. E.ON,
the German power company, has teamed up with Solarwatt, another leading German renewables
company. EnBW, one of the big four German utility companies, recently
bought Senec,
another supplier of battery storage units.
The systems are not cheap,
though industry analysts say a fall in the cost of both batteries and solar
panels in recent years has made such equipment far more affordable.
Rapid switch
“The units are getting cheaper
at an incredible pace”, says Aachen University’s Dr Kairies. “We estimate that
the relative cost of the systems has gone down by more than 50% over the past
five years, though this may not be reflected in the price paid by the
homeowner.
“What’s happened is that now,
due to greater efficiencies, buyers are getting twice as much battery storage
power for their money.”
Owners of a relatively small
house would be likely to pay a total sum in the region of US$20,000 for both
solar panels and batteries, though prices vary widely, dependent on actual
house size, insulation and on how the building is positioned in regard to
sunlight.
Sales of the units have
provided a lifeline for Germany’s solar industry, which not
so long ago was on its knees. Cheap solar panel imports from China had
forced many domestic manufacturers out of business; a decline in the level of
feed-in tariffs – the guaranteed payments consumers received for supplying
energy to the grid – had further damaged the solar business.
Not so sunny
There were questions over
Germany’s suitability for solar. “Germany
is not exactly one of the world’s sunniest holiday destinations”,
says a report on the
sector by the Clean Energy Wire (CLEW), a Germany-based
journalism group which focuses on the country’s transition to renewable energy.
“In fact, the central European country ranks among countries with the fewest
hours of sunshine per year.”
According to CLEW, more than
150,000 people were employed in Germany’s solar sector in 2011. Six years later
that number had shrunk to 36,000.
Today, according to figures
from the International Energy Agency (IEA),
Germany is top of the world rankings in terms of installed solar capacity per
capita, accounting for about
10% of total global installed solar capacity.
The bulk of solar panels and
batteries are still manufactured in Asia, mainly in China. Retailers in Germany
package the systems and make adjustments, as well as carrying out installation
work and servicing. All systems come with a 10-year warranty.
Exports take off
Exports of the combined solar
and battery units are rising. A
recent report by Wood Mackenzie, the investment and research group, says
other countries in Europe, particularly Spain and Italy, are following
Germany’s example.
“Germany’s world-leading foray
into the residential storage market has enabled Europe to claim the title of
the largest residential storage market globally”, says the report.
“Off the back of Germany’s
success, residential storage is beginning to proliferate in other European
countries, particularly where market structures, prevailing power prices and
disappearing feed-in tariffs create a favourable early-stage deployment
landscape.”
The UK and Australia are seen
as strong growth markets and – as long as the sun keeps shining – the future
looks bright: McKinsey,
the consultancy and research group, predicts that the costs of energy storage systems around
the world will fall further – by more than 50% by 2025 – because of
advances in design, more streamlined production processes and economies of
scale as output is expanded. – Climate News Network
No comments:
Post a Comment