Solar Power? Forget It!
August 21, 2015
By Paul Homewood
If you believed everything you read in the press, you would think that solar power was transforming the world’s energy market. Well, think again!
If you thought that the amount of power generated from wind was pitiful, just wait till you see what solar is producing. Again, from the BP Energy Review:
More than half of the solar power produced in the world comes from the EU, mainly Germany, Italy and Spain.
But when we check just how much this contributes to total electricity generation, we need a magnifying glass! Even in the EU it is only 3%; globally it is less than 1%.
In terms of total energy consumption, solar is vanishingly small. Globally, solar power contributes just 0.3%.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
The Open University MOOC “Elements of Renewable Energy” features the Marstal Solar District Heating Scheme in Denmark, as a case study.
Under this photogenic image
Seems impressive, eh?
One clue, overlooked by many course participants, is the mention that Phase1 supplies 30% of the annual heat requirement, and Phase2 will raise it to 55%.
No mention in the course notes is that the 1600 households depend upon a 4MW boiler, and the solar panels are therefore supplementary. [It’s Denmark, so ultimate greenery, the boiler is biomass.]
The total budget for the project was €15.1m, of which the EU contributed €6.1m.
There are 1,500 “members” in the Marstal scheme. If each ‘member’ is a ‘household’, then the scheme has cost >€10,000 per household. Presumably each household still has to pay for the fuel for the biomass boilers.
I wonder how much each household contributed towards the capital costs of the scheme?
The balance of the costs would have been financed by taxpayers from across the EU.
Sadly, that none of those financial details were mentioned in the OU project description.
http://solar-district-heating.eu/NewsEvents/News/tabid/68/ArticleId/49/Marstal-Solar-District-Heating–EU-supports-the-extension-to-a-100-renewable-energy-system.aspx
The Danes are playing with combined solar and ground source heat – but oooohhh… that involves drilling ….
From their web site
The water is heated by the sun through the solar panels during the summer and stored for use in the winter. The Marstal district heating network relies on solar energy from 1 April to 1 October. Solar energy amounts to 30 percent of the annual output of roughly 28,000 MWh. The rest of the year, heat is supplied by six boilers with a total output of 18.3 MWh
Annual consumption = 28000MWh
solar heat generation (30%) = 8,400MWh
Boiler output annual basis = 160, 418 MWh
Boiler run time 19600/160418 = 12.2%
A closer view of the panels is on https://stateofgreen.com/en/profiles/aeroe/solutions/marstal-district-heating-s-solar-thermal-system
There are 3 wind turbines on the island also.
Stop picking on solar you bullies, my new watch is solar powered, and I love it.
Does it glow in the dark ?
whoops forgot …….. 🙂
Your watch is battery powered, the battery is charged by light not just the sun. If you are indoors,that electric light may be provided by gas, coal, nuclear etc. A sundial is solar powered.
Why such antipathy to solar energy? If the EU can generate “only” 3% of it’s energy using solar, this is positive proof that the US which has a hell of a lot more land that experiences a hell of a lot more sun ought to be able to do better. And if you ask me, 3% of our electrical energy use would be a huge achievement. Sure solar is expensive, but so is building a nuclear power-plant, which also takes, like, ten-twenty years, and who wants one in their backyard? I only see maybe one house out of 500 here with solar panels on the roof. Maybe people are “scared” of change and that is why, in part, solar is not producing a significant amount of power in the US. But go ahead, bash it, because it’s associated with liberal thinking… and you know, all things liberal MUST be bad because…. well …. um… we just don’t like liberals!
Despite your rather naive views, i have no objection to solar or any other energy source, as long as it does not have to be subsidised.
Clearly though we cannot rely on solar to make much difference, particularly here in the UK and other high latitudes. One look at the tiny amount of power they produce in winter here, when we actually need most power, would make that apparent even to an idiot.
Mr Galligani, ‘scared of change’!!! What, Mr Galligani do you do at night when there is no sun?
You still use electricity, so you will need all of the existing generating systems.
So someone has paid for this solar installation and still has to pay for all existing installations.
Can you begin to see how solar may not be the solution to any perceived issue?
As an engineer I couldn’t care less about politics, my objection to solar is purely based on inefficiency. This technology would never even have got off the ground without massive subsidies. If anyone wants to install a solar system without subsidies, then fine.
Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
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