Germany Continues To Lead The Way In Solar Power Generation!
Solar PhotoVoltaic expansion in Germany jumped 28 percent in 2022, with 7.2 gigawatts (GW) of new installations added to the grid in the past year!
Since 2004 solar power in Germany has been growing considerably due to the country's feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, which were introduced by the German Renewable Energy Sources Act, and declining PV costs. Prices of PV systems/solar power system decreased more than 70% in the 17 years since 2006.In 2023, solar panels in the U.S. cost about $20,020 on average down from more than $50,000 10 years ago. While the national average of solar panels in Germany is $2.66 per watt, solar panels in Germany generally cost about $2.56. Using this figure, a typical 7.5-kW system would cost about $8,450 After the 30% federal solar tax credit is applied. In 2022, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,680 kilowatt hours (kWh), an average of about 890 kWh per month.
New solar and wind farms in Germany already compete with and in most cases undercut the operating costs of conventional power stations. And the price for renewable power is only going in one direction…down!
A statement issued by German public body the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in 2022, said new renewables projects “are on the same level of operating costs of conventional power plants, if not lower.” With forecasters predicting carbon emission certificates will cost more than $105.00 per ton by the end of the decade, and PV power prices set to fall further, the writing is on the wall for conventional power generation in Germany.
More than 200,000 German households and small-business owners—and millions of people worldwide— have dug deep into their pockets to invest in solar units with battery storage since lower-cost systems appeared on the market almost a decade ago. Solar power accounts for an estimated 10.9 percent of electricity in Germany in 2022, which is almost exclusively from photovoltaics.