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Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Why Generators Are Terrified of Solar

Author:     GILES PARKINSON
Source:     REneweconomy
Publication Date:     26-Mar-12
 Link: Why Generators Are Terrified of Solar
Stephan:   As time has gone on it has become ever more clear to me that non-petroleum energy sources are not only cleaner, they are truly going to be much cheaper. On that basis if national wellness were our country's first priority then we would be spending billions to make the transition. But the path out of old energy has been troubled and problematic. Why? The answer of course is that those corporations whose profits are based on old energy are doing everything they can to stop the decentralization which is implicit in the alternatives. Mostly the attack point is the regulations that allow people, towns or communities to sell to the grid. He is what is going on in Europe and Australia, where solar is a much bigger factor than it is in the U.S. Click through to look at the very useful charts; they are worth some close attention.

Here is a pair of graphs that demonstrate most vividly the merit order effect and the impact that solar is having on electricity prices in Germany; and why utilities there and elsewhere are desperate to try to reign in the growth of solar PV in Europe. It may also explain why Australian generators are fighting so hard against the extension of feed-in tariffs in this country.

The first graph illustrates what a typical day on the electricity market in Germany looked like in March four years ago; the second illustrates what is happening now, with 25GW of solar PV installed across the country. Essentially, it means that solar PV is not just licking the cream off the profits of the fossil fuel generators – as happens in Australia with a more modest rollout of PV – it is in fact eating their entire cake.

Both graphs were published last week on the website Renewables International, and were sourced from EPEX, the European power price exchange. The first graph, from 2008, shows peaking power prices rising to around €60/MWh and staying there for most of the day, with some visible peaks around noon and the early evening – the size of which would […]

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