In this blog we will change our common topic about smart solar street lights and its features and we will bring solar industry closer to you via country by country examples. If you are interested to learn how a certain country is addressing this topic, please write us and we will give our best to honor your wish(es). OK, let’s start – the first one – Germany.
It is the forth largest economy in the world (the 1st in Europe) by nominal GDP and fifth by PPP, a technological and political leader with 82 million inhabitants. Industry this big and developed is highly dependent on energy power, which had been supplied via numerous built nuclear and coal plants.
Aren’t those plants cheaper comparing to renewable based? It is said that smart people see things further and more clear. If we add „indirect“ costs to coal plant (carbon print and green house effect with completely wasted land in plant seeding areas) or to nuclear plant malfunction probability (absolute multi-century no-life disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima) and take into consideration a 75% price decrease of PV panel and batteries and a significant decrease of wind system components as well, we would begin to understand why in 2010 Germany declared Energiewende (energy transition plan) with the aim of 60% power supply produced by renewable energy sources by 2050 or why in 2011 decided to decommission all its nuclear plants by 2022. With subsidies and then feed-in tariff as incentives, Germany now has about 1.5 million photovoltaic systems with a total capacity of 38 gigawatt (GW), ranging from small rooftop systems, over solar street lighting to large solar parks and numerous (some vast system) wind poles. It’ve already reached 33% renewables shown below:
Germany even reached an 80% renewable production on April 30 this year and became a big energy exporter amid coal and nuclear power reduction.
However, the battle is not yet completely won. Since solar powered energy has intermittent supply and stable and predictable demand, grid system is still developing the most efficient way to store and manage these peaks and troughs.
Germany’s electric system works nowadays as a two-way street between power grid and renewable based consumer. For instance, Solar Street Lights are powered by solar energy with excess power absorbed by Grid and powered by Grid in return when not enough sun, resulting in a minimal electricity bill on an annual basis. Due to Goverment’s belief that Solar can without doubt compete with coal power, the feed-in tariff is being lowered year after year with a plan to switch to auction-based system in following years. For all reasons stated above and many more, we at EnGoPlanet are receiving more and more inquiries about Solar Street Light and Solar benches from Germany. Our aim is to acomplish all (pending) projects so our clients and community in general would be more than happy to refer us as a reliable, flexible and cost-efficient company.
Energiewende example:
Cooling towers at a nuclear power plant in Gundremmingen are visible behind homes whose owners are taking advantage of solar-power subsidies. The plant is marked for closure.
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