Solar parks generate over 50% of Germany's power on Jun 9

Jun 19, 2014 - Solar power generation in Germany peaked at 23.1 GW on June 9, enough to meet 50.6% of the total electricity demand in the country at the time, fresh data by the Fraunhofer ISE solar energy research institute show.

This is a new record for the sector.

Tobias Rothacher, expert for renewable energies at economic development agency Germany Trade & Invest, believes that the country will require more energy storage capacity in the future as the existing photovoltaic (PV) systems are generating a surplus. “The cost of storage systems is forecast to drop in the coming years and this means that storage is not only becoming more necessary - it is becoming more attractive from a financial point of view as well," he said in a statement.

Fraunhofer ISE has also reported that PV systems produced a record 24.24 GW of electricity between 1300 and 1400 local time on June 6 and an aggregate of 1.26 TWh over the entire week.

Despite these good news, however, earlier today the German solar industry association BSW-Solar warned that the country is likely to miss its annual solar installations goal of 2.5 GW-3.5 GW for 2014. Germany added only 818 MW of PV capacity in January-May, down 45% year-on-year.

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