

2010 10 Gigawatts Solar Power Install Expected - cwan
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007250.html

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pjscott
That's peak, by the way. Typically, solar produces about 20% of that on
average, so that would be an average production of about 2 GW.

It's nice if you can soak up a bunch of extra power whenever the sun happens
to be shining. If you want to power air conditioners, or charge plug-in hybrid
electric cars, solar fits that niche nicely as long as you can build it
cheaply enough.

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lispm
Half of that is here in Germany. Time to catch up.

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ugh
Mostly because it’s a damn good investment in Germany.

The price you can sell energy at is guaranteed (government subsidies). Your
investment (maybe 100,000 €) will pay itself off in about twenty years
(including insurance and the occasional maintenance). Modern solar panels have
a lifetime of more than twenty years.

Because of all this banks will be more than happy to give you credit and if
you have the necessary space you would be stupid if you didn’t do it. It’s
free money.

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lispm
It's is not 'government subsidies' as one might think.

Instead the next grid operator has to take the electricity and has to pay a
certain government specified price for it. The electricity companies will sell
electricity to the consumer and these will pay for it. So the end consumer
pays the price. The goal is to reduce the price for renewable energy such that
it is at the level of other electricity (from coal, gas, nuclear, ...).

There is no tax money involved. The electricity consumers pay for it.

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stoney
Of course the electricity consumers also pay taxes, so it all works out the
same in the end!

They've just introduced a similar scheme in the UK, with the price guaranteed
for 25 years. It looks like around a 10 year payback period on the
installation so a very attractive proposition if you've got the cash available
and plan to stay in your current home for at least the next decade.

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AndrewDucker
That's a 575 increase in one year. Another 17 years and the whole planet will
be solar powered!

(Yes, that's a terribly naive bit of maths, and there are reasons why it won't
be that simple. But still :-> )

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sgt
10 Jiggawatts is plenty for my flux capacitor.

