New charts on renewable power in Germany
French energy expert Bernard Chabot has put together an exhaustive series of charts to visualize data for renewable electricity in the first half of 2013.
The new PDF has 117 slides. Some of the information, such as monthly PV and wind power production, is already available from Bruno Burger's overview (PDF), but Chabot added some new comparisons, such as for wind power capacity factors in Germany and France, which clearly show that France has much better wind conditions.
To take just one example, the capacity factor in Germany was 13.7 percent in February, compared to 23.3 percent in France, and a 10 percent spread also occurred in April. In no month was the capacity factor for wind power higher in Germany than in France. But then, Germany has put up a lot more wind turbines, including in areas of low wind, so the comparison is perhaps unfair.
Furthermore, Chabot’s charts comparing the price of power on the exchange with combined wind + solar production clearly reveals the close temporal correlation between low renewable power availability and high exchange prices. The charts also clearly reveal the instances when power prices were negative (six times in June).
Most importantly, Chabot’s presentation shows that "open public access to EEX and EPEX SPOT SE data in a simple format is an advantage for analysis, monitoring, and lessons." In other words, there is so much analysis of what Germany is doing because Germany provides the data in both English and German. Simply put, it is much harder to analyze data that are simply not available – a common problem in the US, for instance. (Craig Morris)
Hi, I am trying to find data in time series on which "1990 – 2012 German RE electricity production" graph was made (slide 7 in "Renewable Electricity In Germany in the first half of 2013").
Do you think you can help with that?
If yes you can contact me directly to jakubru@ruc.dk
Regards Jakub
@James: "Rural people are stupid" doesn't sound like a convincing theory IMO.
Every community power project will have to be set up by a specialized project developer and the wind turbine manufacturer also has an interesst in the performance of their products. These are also warranty and insurance issues. (there are insurance policies thate protect wind projects from below average power generation)
Furthermore, a community power project will have more, not less, incentive to keep "THEIR" turbines in top notch condition. "How can they decide to upgrade turbine management software" seriously?
After they decided to establish their own power company, raise capital and execute a multi-million Dollar wind project, they are suddenly incompetent to upgrade their investment to maximize revenue?
C'mon! Those "incompetent amateur" are business people, farmers, engineers, bankers, ...
The very low German wind capacity factor calls for an explanation. One possibility you wil not like is that community ownership in Germany has led to wind development being set up and managed by well-meaning but technically incompetent amateurs. How can a village decide whether to invest in upgraded turbine management software? This issue does not affect community solar, where all installations in a given area will get roughly the same output per module (of a given type) irrespective of size.