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The German Solar Industry Association (BSW) has announced that German solar power producers have increased electricity output this year by 60 percent over 2010 to 18 billion kWh. This is more than three percent of total power output volumes.
BSW’s managing director Carsten Koernig stated that “solar energy has become an indispensable ingredient of a successful energy strategy shift”. The solar sector has already produced enough electricity to power approximately 5.1 million households. This accounts for about one-eighth of all households in Germany.
BDEW, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, stated that PV power installation was the fastest growing sector amongst German renewable power sources this year. Renewable power accounted for about 19.9 percent of the energy mix in 2011, compared with 16.4 percent last year, as BDEW’s preliminary data shows.
According to experts, as Reuters reports, the solar sector’s production remains volatile and unsustainable due to the unfavourable weather conditions, thus relying still on a subsidy-driven situation. This places the cost largely on consumers. However, Koernig says that the solar industry stands by its commitments to cut costs and costs have already seen a fall of 50 percent since 2007.
BSW has stated that if there were reliable conditions the industry would continue with targets to account for 10 percent of all power by 2020.This is in the backdrop of the upcoming FITs cuts in 2012 in Germany.
Source: PV-Magazine
