BluDanuBlog

Last-ditch efforts by Germany’s solar power industry to ease cuts in the country’s generous feed-in tariff yielded only minor concessions, according to an article from Power-Gen Worldwide.

Following negotiations between the two houses of the German parliament, the feed-in rate will be reduced by up to 13% as of July 1, followed by a further 3% cut in October. Actual rate reductions will depend on the size and type of installation. Under the original plan passed by the Bundestag this spring, the full 16% cut would have taken effect this month.

It’s official: the German parliament has passed long-anticipated cutbacks in the country’s generous feed-in tariff system of subsidies for solar photovoltaic power generation (Solar Association press release in German). The subsidies will be reduced by 11 to 16% depending on the type and size of installation. The new rates were adopted by the Bundestag today and take effect from July 1. Further cuts are expected from the start of next year.

The German Solar Power Association immediately blasted the legislation, an amendment to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). System manufacturers such as SolarWorld AG have complained that the rate reduction is greater than can be offset by declining production costs. The new regulations will also bar building of solar power plants on farmland, a move the Solar Association called “unacceptable”.

Representatives of the governing coalition countered that the amendment eliminates a burden that “bestows dream returns on investors and rising electricity prices on consumers.” They also noted that the rates in effect until now have favored foreign manufacturers, who supply 60% of all solar modules installed in Germany.

The legislation does include a few bright spots for solar advocates. Generation for the operator’s own use will be subsidized for the first time, although support will be less generous than proponents had hoped. The legislation also explicitly opens brownfield sites and strips alongside roads and railways to solar development and establishes a €100 million research and development fund.

How to store the energy produced from vast but intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar has long been a major stumbling block in building a “green” energy economy. Now German and Austrian researchers may have found a breakthrough solution (press release in German).

Researchers from the Baden-Württemberg Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research and the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology have developed a process using electric power from renewables to first “crack” water to obtain hydrogen, then convert it to methane through a chemical reaction with carbon dioxide.

The methane can then be fed into the existing natural gas infrastructure, potentially eliminating the need for enormous investment in new facilities for hydrogen or other forms of energy storage.

Solar Fuel Technology of Austria has already completed a small demonstration plant in Stuttgart and is currently building a 10 MW pilot facility scheduled for completion in 2012.

The European Union’s international database on renewable energy legislation now provides information for all 27 EU countries, according to a press release from the German environment ministry picked up by Photon International. Using the database is free of charge, and all country profiles are available in German and English.

No thanks to the Lege.
It’s not exactly a mega-project, but Renewable Energy Focus is reporting that Tessera Solar has signed a power purchase agreement with CPS Energy and will build a 27MW solar project in West Texas. The project will use 1,080 SunCatcher mirror dishes driving Stirling engines, with the first units expected to come online by the end of 2010.

The latest annual World Market Update from Danish wind energy consultants BTM Consult ApS reports 42% growth in wind turbine capacity from 2007 to 2008, for a cumulative worldwide total of 122,000 MW. The report predicts 8.6% growth for the sector in 2009 despite the ongoing economic crisis, rising to an average of 15.7% annually through 2013. Wind power currently provides 1.3% of the world’s electricity. This figure is predicted to rise to 8% by 2018.

Germany’s Enertrag AG has begun work in Dauerthal, northeast of Berlin near the Polish border, on a “hybrid” wind power plant that will produce electricity and hydrogen. With a total generating capacity of 6 MW, the plant will supply the grid and use any excess power for hydrolysis to produce hydrogen for fuel and energy storage. The facility will also feature a combined heat and power plant fueled by biogas and hydrogen produced on-site. The plant is scheduled to come on-line in 2010.

The Spanish Ministry of Industry reports that approvals for new solar photovoltaic projects rose in Q2/2009 after having dropped sharply in the first quarter. The total capacity of newly approved projects is 130 MW, up from 88.7 MW for Q1.

The legislation governing Spain’s feed-in tariff system provides for adjustments based on quarterly approvals of rooftop and stand-alone installations. Since new approvals in the latter category amounted to 95 MW, slightly above the adjustment threshold of 94.5 MW, the new tariff for stand-alone PV installations will drop from 30.7 eurocents to 29.9 cents per kWh.

The European Parliament has amended the 2002 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to require that all buildings built after 2018 produce as much energy as they consume on-site, averaged over the course of the year, through enhanced efficiency and use of technology such as solar panels and heat pumps.

The amendment, which must be implemented in national law by member state legislatures, also calls for increased financial support for energy efficiency measures and sets standards to upgrade the energy performance of existing buildings.

A February 2009 U.S. Commercial Service Industry Sector Analysis (register to download) taps biomass as the renewable energy source with the greatest potential in the Czech Republic. The country currently gets 5.6% of its energy from renewable sources (official target for 2020: 13%), mostly hydroelectric with relatively little growth potential. Although solar photovoltaic saw strong expansion in 2008, the report does not consider solar a high-potential sector due to expiring subsidies. Wind is also experiencing strong growth, with a number of major projects in the pipeline.

Germany’s new Energy Conservation Ordinance (EnEV), which takes effect this October, permits energy generated on-site from renewable sources to be offset against a building’s energy consumption for code compliance purposes. The new regulation is expected to further boost interest in rooftop solar installations, already widespread thanks to Germany’s feed-in tariff system, especially in combination with new subsidies in the Renewable Energy Law. Critics maintain that the changes will promote electric heating systems and heat pumps at the expense of conservation, thus inadvertently leading to even higher electric power consumption in winter.
The new EnEV is based on comparison of a building’s energy consumption to a “reference building” with specified insulation values and equipment including a solar thermal hot-water system.
Although the website of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs does have an English section, information on the new conservation standards is only available in German so far.