Posted on 12/18/2011 10:12:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
This week Solon became the first publicly traded solar-power company to file for bankruptcy in Germany. Despite cost-cutting and a round of last-minute negotiations, the Berlin-based photovoltaic equipment maker can't make its deadline to repay €275 million in loans.
You could call Solon a European version of Solyndra, the California solar-cell maker that filed for bankruptcy in September after blowing through a $535 million loan guaranteed by U.S. taxpayers. But Solon also represents a broader bust in alternative-energy sources that's been more than a decade in the making.
Germany's Northern European climate never made it an obvious boom-site for solar power. Nevertheless, since 1990 Germany has been imposing some form of what are now called "feed-in tariffs"—mandates that force utilities to pay above-market prices for wind, solar and other so-called renewable sources of energy. These guaranteed long-term prices deliver renewable-powered electricity at retail prices 46% above conventional sources, according to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
For that premium, Germans bought an electricity market that relies on renewable energy for more than 20% of capacity today, compared to 6.3% in 2000. They have installed more solar panels than any other country in the world. Between 2010 and 2011, the number of photovoltaic installations in Germany increased 76%, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries.
As the solar glut grew, the government of Angela Merkel decided it wouldn't make Germans subsidize high-cost energy forever. Berlin has been ratcheting down the mandated tariffs for the last few years, and in October it said the price-floor for solar power would drop by 15% in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
So, where do I go to get my cheap solar panels?
RE: So, where do I go to get my cheap solar panels?
Simple answer— FREE MARKET. If solar power is meant to be cheap, it is meant to be cheap. If it isn’t, it isn’t.
They have installed more solar panels than any other country
SEE Oli, those German Nazis ARE out to rule the world.
NOW THEY"RE OUT TO STEAL THE SUN!
WE'RE DOOOOOOMED!
We were in Bavaria two years ago, an area that is usually cloudy and foggy. All of the traditional German cottages had solar panels - we figured they were either massively subsidized or required by law because it made absolutely no sense to have them there.
Germans are clever people. I understand that you could install solar panels and sell the excess power they generated back to the utilities at a very attractive price. The clever Germans discovered that the price was so attractive that they could install several panels to qualify and then install a generator and sell the power from the generator to the utilities.
Even if the Chinese gave us solar panels free-of-charge, solar power would be a foolish bet for mass generation. The sun gives at most 1kw per sq. meter -- and that's when it's shining of course.
That can't be magnified and it takes square mile after square mile of ugly panels to generate the juice to keep a small town lit. Solar power is a nice add-on to a house or office building, but lighting a country with it is insane.
that’s fabulous. I had never heard that one.
In the Middle East they get about 300+ days of sunlight but you see zero solar cells there because they have oil. The price of a gallon of gas when I was there was $.18. That’s right, 18 cents.
That can’t be!!!
Peak Oil! PEAK OIL!!!!
The sun is free....
Haliburton....
DICK CHENEY!!!!!!
Sorry, having fun.
Just imagine what the US could do with 18 cent gas. The economy would grow at doulbe digit rates.
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