Largest Solar Park in the World Opens in Germany
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04.30.06
The ribbon was cut on the World's largest continguous solar plant on 27th April 2006 in Germany. Construction on the 40 million euro (US$48 million) photovoltaic installation started August 2005. This plant demonstrates new standards in cost-efficiency for solar power. Using the master-slave inverter concept developed by Shell, the plant delivers the optimized energy output. Also, flexible installation technology--such as the use of either aluminum, wood or steel racks depending on material prices and the foundation on either concrete or piles--optimizes the costs. And if solar is viable in Germany, just imagine the efficiencies possible where the sun really shines!
Pocking receives an average of 1121 KWh/m2-year. 62,500 modules in 6 parallel linked units deliver power from earth's closest star to the houses of 3300 Germans via energy company E.on. That's a total of about 16,5 km (10 miles) of solar panels mounted on a former military grounds at Pocking, near Passau in Bavaria. The installation saves 10,000 tons of CO2 yearly--the equivalent of 1,000 hectares of woodlands.
Solar plants are the new skyscrapers. Last year Shell opened the formerly "world's largest" solar power plant near Leipzig, producing only 5 MW. The Shell solar plant in Pocking will soon be overtaken by the GE-Powerlight plant in Portugal at 11 MW, brought to you yesterday in TreeHugger. Hot on their heels is a 15 MW plant in South Korea, 100 MW in Israel. The current leader in announced capacity appears to be a 116 MW solar station in Portugal to be built by a consortium of German companies.
via solar magazin (German)
Expect to see 'The world's biggest solar PV plant' in the news regularly from now on. I am especially glad to see a 100 MV plant being planned for the Negev desert. Sunny desert areas have the greatest insolation, and the continuous shade produced by these PV plant installations might have a beneficial effect on desert areas that were not long ago grasslands.
Won't work in Murruca 'cause the shotgun slugs will be falling on them during deer season.
NY Democratic candidate for governor Eliot Spitzer said the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County should be closed as soon as replacement sources can be found for the 2,000 megawatts it produces. So how many of these would we need?
Why are we 'wasting land' with this? Why aren't we putting them on top of existing buildings. Imagine what new york would be like if all the roofs (rooves?) had a combination roof garden (to reduce the heat that we generate) and solar panels (to cut down on the amount of electricity we eat...
NY Democratic candidate for governor Eliot Spitzer said the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County should be closed as soon as replacement sources can be found for the 2,000 megawatts it produces. So how many of these would we need?
That's stupid. Close coal plants. Nuclear may be the only thing that can produce enough clean cheap power.
So that pictures shows a 5 MW solar plant. Keep in mind that is 5 MW peak, 0 MW at night, so it is the equivalent of a 2.5 MW "base power" plant (such as coal or nuclear) to deliver dependable base power.
To equal a standard 2 GW nuclear plant, you would need 400 copies of the solar plant you see above just to meet peaking requirements, 800 of them if you found a battery system capable of storing that kind of power (like a water pump / hydropower storage system).
This array is probably about 250m (1/4 a km) on a side if the array elements are 1m^2.
So that 800 of these would be a square 7km on a side...
esm is right. Roof all new buildings in areas with alot of sunlight like Nevada, Arizona, Southern California. Covering up good land in Germany, which isn't very sunny, isn't the best use of the technology. There is a subdivision in San Diago that is a net producer of power. The power company hates it because they're required to buy the excess. The homeowners love it because you make money every month instead of paying and it helps keep the houses cooler. The biggest power drain in the southwest is air conditioning and most of the heat comes in though the roof.
In New York state, there would need to be some 20 square miles of PV to replace the energy from this nuclear plant. New York is not an ideal location for PV plants. It is much better to install wind farms, wave farms, and other renewable sources. As someone else mentioned, PV would be better off in New York to put on top of existing buildings.
Another idea would be for the government to half the price with buisnesses and replace all windows with that new "Power Glass". Its basicly solar panels that looks like glass and is made by XsunX. More info at www.XsunX.com
How can 7 sq km of solar panels be considered wasteful? think of how many coal mines destroy more land than that. I agree with the rooftop idea if every home starts doing its part it will have an amazing effect.
This news is fake! Here (also in Germany) is really the largest one...
Hi Christine,
me again. Two points:
"That's a total of about 16,5 km (10 miles) of solar panels"
What do you mean? Squarekilometers? Length of wire? Doesn't seem to make sense.
"10,000 tons of CO2 yearly--the equivalent of 1,000 hectares of woodlands."
10.000 tons compared to what other method of electricity generation. And I wasn't aware that "tons of CO2/year" could be converted into "hectares of woodland"?
Thanks for clarifying,
Cheers, B.
===Author's note follows===
Glad to. In this case, 16.5km (10 miles) refers to linear kilometers: the length of the racks holding the panels if they were placed end-to-end instead of densely packed as they are. The 10,000 tons per year CO2 saved is compared to the average emissions of the mixture of conventional power sources on the market in Germany (which data is becoming quite reliable due to the CO2 trading markets). And conversion to woodland area is based on the CO2 consumption of the trees (which I suppose is a little short-sighted since the CO2 bound up in the trees will ultimately be released again in biodegradation or fuel use of the wood...but it is still an interesting way of thinking about our use of resources and the trade-offs they entail.)
Enviar Alejo
M@P$ ! fuck tha rest
ha ha
Is Shell of GE developing any of its huge solar panel arrays in this country. If not, it's unfathomable. We're spending 100's of billions on a war which is about energy and only serves to increase hostility towards this country. If all this money had been spent on installing solar and wind farms in this country, our energy problems would be nearly if not entirely solved. Imagine how that would change the perception of this country to the rest of the world, leading the charge to become free of dependence on oil, instead of leading the charge to attack other countries to gain control of oil.
my orgnisation is called babyblu.org and i live in western austrlia i am building a solar power plant now im not just using my money to do so..
ive created my owen org so i can collect tax deductable donations to build this great project
now im not just a young person that wants to make a differance i have cystic fibrosis so apparently that gives me a shorter thime than every one else to acomplish my dreams..
so what im asking anyone who reads this is please help theres is three things i wana no...
IS THERE NEW DESINGS IN SOLAR ENERGY IN THE MAKING
HOW BIG AND HOW$MUCH$ IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOLAR PANELS
Y DOESNT THE AUTRALIAN GOVERMENT INVEST IN OUR FUTURE AND BUILD A SOLAR POWER PANEL FACTORY AND BUILD THERE OWEN SOLAR POWER PANNELS THEN GIVE THEM AWAY AT COST PRICE....
EMAIL ME IF U CAN ANWSER ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS... babyblu.org@bigpond.com.au
thanx! bluey