German solar roofs initiative increases web site visits.

[NNadir]

Here's a classic in the country in which the so called "Greens" are in the Government Coalition.

"Process.

In the year 2002, the climate protection unit launched the program “Solar Roof Initiative”. All city districts were asked to list useable buildings. Together with the local authorities, the climate protection unit set up 17 pools, representing the city districts and other municipal building owners. Integrated in these 17 pools were 86 buildings with more than 144.000m² roof area. Published were those roofs via announcements. Many private investors have shown interest, but no real contract was made. A possible reason for this could be the lower feed-in tariffs at that time and/or the high module costs."

Not to worry though, there are lots of web site visits:

"At this time about 25 private investors have shown interest and negotiations are still in progress. We expect that during mid-2005 the first plants will be installed. The following chart shows the number of visits since publication of the web site. As one can see in the chart, the interest in visiting the web site was decreasing until the month May, in May we were releasing additional city districts. After that the visits were increasing again."

And we have a nice chart of web site visits therein, not necessarily monotonically increasing, as mathematicians like to say, but still very respectible, since talking about what solar power could do is saving the world. Talk is practically free. They're getting 8000 visits a month, and only 7975 of those are from the members of the Hot Air Society looking for links showing how great solar energy is working.

I invite you to enjoy this powerful discussion of website visits:

http://www.managenergy.net/download/nr173.pdf

Germany has a 100,000 solar roof program, somewhat less agressive than Governor Hydrogen Hummer Steroid Boy's quadrillion roof program, but impressive for what it promises in any case. Maybe after 7 years of being in a position to actually have to deliver on promises, the Germans have learned something about inflated expectations. Maybe 100,000 sounds better than a quadrillion these days. You miss by smaller numbers from your projections if you end up close to zero.

One of the easiest things for politicians to do is to offer tax breaks for solar systems. This is because the public loves to hear about these things, and they're pretty close to free, since few people actually take them up on the offer.

And did you love those prices for delivered solar energy? 57.4/54,6/54,0 cent/kWh, roughly 10X the price of any other form of energy at the wholesale level. Everybody would like a ten fold increase in their electric bill. This is because we live in free lunch land.

[slor]

1. Thanks for the links. n/t

[jpak]

2. The German 100,000 solar roof program was a smashing success

The original goal was 300 MW installed capacity.

The final tally was >400 MW and over 140,000 "roofs".

http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/2004/indicator12.htm

Germany is now producing and installing ~400 MW of new PV capacity per year and has a vibrant PV industry.

Some recent articles from Solarbuzz.com...

Prenzlau, Germany: Aleo Solar Raises Solar Module Assembly Capacity to 90 Megawatts

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUMA79.htm

Hamburg, Germany: Hamburg's Largest PV System Completed

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUPR229.htm

Berlin, Germany: Solon and Q-Cells Sign Five Year Agreement

http://www.solarbuzz.com/news/newseuco198.htm

Alzenau, Germany: RWE SCHOTT Solar Inaugurates 40 MW Module Assembly Plant

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUMA72.htm

Marbach, Germany: Würth Solar to Invest €55 million in Thin Film Manufacturing Plant

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUMA68.htm

Bonn, Germany: SolarWorld Inaugurates New Silicon Casting Capacity

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUMA65.htm

Pocking, Germany: Shell Solar to Proceed with 10 Megawatt PV System

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUPR215.htm

Arnstein, Germany: SunPower Corporation and Solon AG Open Phase One of World's Largest Solar Park

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUPR214.htm

Sulzemoos, Germany: Phönix SonnenStrom Commences Construction of 5.3 Megawatt PV System

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsEUPR211.htm

:beer: :hippie: :smoke: :party: :toast:

[Kellanved]

3. actually Berlin has a red-red coalition. No greens

The German federal system is rather complicated, like most real world scenarios.
Most solar approaches are thermic, i.e. for heating - which is a very viable idea (unlike using nuclear for this purpose ;-)).

Photovoltaic rooftop installations are little more than a publicity stunt. However, in times of rapidly exploding energy costs, even PV can be an economically reasonable investment.
Anyway, IIRC this project was created as a reaction to a Green demand in the state parliament.