BP Powers Up Latest Large-Scale German PV Solar Installation

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Germany continues to be a favored site for large-scale solar PV photovoltaic installations. By the end of 2003, the total installed PV capacity in the country reached around 400 MW. The cost of PV solar power systems has fallen by about 25% since 1999, and about 60% since 1991. This reduction is the result of market growth, the improved efficiency of the modules, and the increasing automation of large-scale production facilities. According to a report by the federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety earlier this year the rate of market growth was 50% in 2003, and there had been a ten-fold increase in market volume in the PV sector between 1998 and 2003.

The push behind this sharp increase in installations and PV cell manufacturing capacity came from a combination of the '100,000 Roofs' solar energy program and the Renewable Energy Sources Act. The roofs program used grants and low-interest loans (commencing at 0% and rising later to 1.9%) to promote investment in solar installations.

The goal was to achieve an additional PV capacity of 300 MW by the end of 2003.

Between 1999 and 2003 350 MW of PV capacity was installed on more than 60,000 solar roofs and the total volume of loan commitments totals $2.05 billion, and this initiated a total investment volume of $2.9 billion. In the same period, the cost of solar energy systems was reduced by 24%.

In Germany, research and development funds available for renewable energies amounted to $81 million in 2003 and are estimated at $80 million for 2004. Out of the annual total the PV sector will receive about $33 million.

In order to avoid a slump in the PV market, at the end of the ' 100,000 Roofs' program, an interim act came into force in January 2004, which set new, increased payments for solar power, including a charge of 65.3 U.S. cents for roof areas with 100 kW and over. Network operators are obliged to connect installations generating electricity from renewable energies to their grids and must purchase this electricity as a priority at fixed rates.

Long terms estimates see PV-generated power accounting for 0.3% of the country's power consumption by 2010, and 6% by 2050. The worldwide share of PV in the power scenario is forecasted to be 23% by 2050. Germany, world leader in windpower, with around 15,000 MW (out of a European total of almost 30,000 MW), is targeting 12.5% of its power supply from renewables by 2010, at least 20% in 2020, and 50% by 2050.

BP Solar is bringing its four megawatt installation at Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt to peak output by the beginning of July. The $20 million plant will produce about 3.4 million kWh per annum and may be extended by another 2 MW. This extension would add another 75,000 square meters to the existing 160,000 square meters covered by 25,000 mono-crystalline and polycrystalline solar modules manufactured by BP solar. At the peak of construction 600 modules were installed per day. The Saxony-Anhalt government has helped to facilitate the project.

For large German solar projects from Shell Solar and Sharp Solar see related Industrailinfo.com news article dated January 27 –2004 – "New German Five Megawatt Project moves up Solar Parameters" – and March 22, 2004 – "Seven Megawatt Solar plant in Germany will be the World's Largest."