World largest's solar power plant opens in Germany

[Kellanved]

ESPENHAIN - The world's largest solar power station was officially put on stream this week in the eastern German town of Espenhain in a project hailed by Environment Minister Juergen Trittin as advancing the timetable to make the sun's power cheaper.

The five-megawatt facility, located on a former lignite mine ash deposit, consists of some 33,500 solar modules.

The output equates to the electricity needs of some 1,800 households while sparing the atmosphere of some 3,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, officials said.

"We need this development in the megawatts capacity so that solar power can become cheaper more quickly through the mass production of solar cells," Trittin, of Germany's environmentalist Greens party, said about the EUR 22 million project.
...
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=11598&name=World+largest%27s+solar+powerplant+opens+in+Germany

[necso]

1. Somebody has got it right!

"We need this development in the megawatts capacity so that solar power can become cheaper more quickly through the mass production of solar cells."

...And to spur increased efficiency.

[phantom power]

2. I wonder what it's like...

to live in a country where people take energy independence seriously.

[DrWeird]

3. Is that 1,800 households on average year round?

nt

[Old and In the Way]

4. Based on the numbers-

$27MM USD / 1800 households / assumed $600/year average electric bill = 25 year payback. An average $1200/year would pay it back in 1/2 the time. Pretty much free after that. Of course, this doesn't reflect the cost of future oil in the calculation....interesting model for lots of small communities that could float munibonds to construct these powerplants....a good way to put people to work too.

[DrWeird]

5. No, I'm curious if that's how much energy it puts out on average.

Because it must go down at least some when it's cloudy out, right?

Surely large solar plants would work great in places like Southern California. I wouldn't expect them to show up in Germany first (disregarding obvious differences in concern for the environment.)

[Old and In the Way]

6. Most probably average....I agree

The drawback is cloudy whether, storage bateery technology probably needs to improve to address that problem. But no question it could offset a large amount of oil burning power generation plants. I like it because-

It's a decentralized energy technology that can standalone or be put on a grid.
It's relatively pollution-free.
It's fixed cost.
It would be job intensive....we could prime our own economy by developing a solar power infrastructure.
It's safer than nuclear, and it delinks our national security from oil.

[kestrel91316]

8. IIRC , cloudiness is not a big issue with solar....................

but shorter days in winter are. ANYPLACE in the US can do solar successfully. Places with lots of heavy clouds a lot of the time are not going to get the same efficiency as places with sun all the time, but it's not a total waste anywhere.

[hatrack]

7. And of course, it's in Germany - certainly not here

Reminds me of southern Japan going on ten years ago. Old farmhouses with slightly sagging walls and ancient tile roofs, but each and every one with solar panels up top.

But not in 'Murka, that's for sure.

[Viking12]

9. Surface Area?

I'm curious about the land surface area necessary for a 5MW facility. It wasn't mentioned in the article, any information?

[jpak]

10. The Shell Solar 160SQ panel is 63.9 inches by 32.1 inches (~1.3 m2)

http://www.solarexpert.com/Shell/Shell-SQ.html

The total area of panels at this facility is 0.044 km2 - the actual size of the facility is probably double (or triple) that when panel mounts are considered....

It's also located on an ash dump - land not much good for anything else.

[NNadir]

11. A five megawatt plant is tiny.

I'm disappointed.

According to this article: http://home.earthlink.net/~cevent/3-29-04_coal_making_comeback.html, the United States is planning on building 90 new coal fired plants with a total capacity of 50,000 Megawatts, meaning that this new German Plant will represent 1/10,000th of that capacity. This is hardly something to write home about.

[phantom power]

12. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

[NNadir]

13. True, but in that same land, there is still a lot of blindness.

[NNadir]

14. This didn't sound right. Here is a larger solar plant, a pilot plant.

http://www.solardev.com/SEIA-makingelec.php

I very much like these parabolic mirror type plants since the energy they can capture can be stored rather than used immediately.

Note this plant, which is only a pilot plant, is larger than the German installation described in the opening post of this thread.

I was depressed to think that the "world's largest" solar installation is merely 5 Megawatts.

[NNadir]

15. And then there's this plant operating at 160 Megawatts...

http://www.solel.com/products/pgeneration/ls2/harperlake/

...and this one operating at 150 Megawatts:

http://www.solel.com/products/pgeneration/ls2/kramerjunction/

and here is one of them viewed from space:

http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/HPDOCS/misr/misr_html/california_sun_glint.html

[Kellanved]

17. I believe these are not photovoltaic plants

But thermal solar plants. A 80MW thermal plant is hardly feasible in Germany. Also thermic plants usually are dual mode (i.e. fossil and/or solar), with a low energy efficiency in both modes.

[NNadir]

18. They are solar plants, and that's what counts.

Actually photovoltaics are less flexible than are solar thermal plants. If the electricity of a photovoltaic is not used immediately, the environmental cost of storing the energy (not to mention the huge loss of efficeincy) makes it very unattractive. This is not true for a thermal plant, which can be used in many ways to create stored energy.

I think it's telling that the thermal plants are economically viable and have been installed at the level of small fossil fueled plants, whereas the largest photovoltaic plant in the world is trivial.

In any case, any solar capacity is a plus for the environment, inasmuch as it represents greenhouse gases not emitted. I just think that photovoltaics will at best only represent a tiny fraction of the energy demand for the next several decades.

[sam sarrha]

16. *ush canceled solar project that could provide 72% of USA daytime power in

his first week of office.

with only 3 or 4 units 10 miles square... across the south west..

We could be free of the Arab cartels.. and foreign oil...

we could be free of foreign oil with Amsoil alone... 250,000 Mile oil change. engines get up to 1,000,000 miles of operation. oil is about $6 qt, dual filter bypass unit is about $120. the flash point is about 980*F. it doesn't volatilize and cause pollution.

Agricultural Hemp produces many times the Bio Diesel than Soy.. hemp oil alone could free us from forign oil. thats why it is illegal and we buy megaTons of it from forign countries. it burns almost polution free and conversion kits are about $250. and it would put family farms back to work.