Get daily news updates from CleanTechnica by email or follow us on Google News.
The energy the Earth gets from the Sun each day can generate enough electricity to meet humanity's needs for a year; we just need to collect it smartly and efficiently. (Note: this assumes you don't use all of it to power data centers.) The tools we use to collect the energy cost money, but the “fuel” that makes it all happen – sunlight – is free. Today, solar power is becoming a major source of electricity in Europe, the UK, and Texas.
For over a century, people have been using heat to make steam to generate electricity. That steam was used to turn generators. The heat was mostly obtained by burning wood, coal, or methane gas. Some came from nuclear reactors. But once the steam was produced, the rest of the process was well known and pretty routine. The other major source of electricity is hydroelectricity, which uses the energy of falling water to turn turbines. This works well in Norway, but not so well in Saudi Arabia.
Sunshine in Germany
Clean Energy Wire reported this week that Germany recorded a record amount of solar power generation in July, despite the amount of sunshine being lower than last year. Data from the Ministry of Economics (BMWK) showed that solar power generation amounted to 10.1 terawatt-hours (TWh), accounting for 43% of the 23.6 TWh generated from renewable energy sources last month. Solar power capacity from January to July was up 12% compared to the first seven months of 2023.
Germany has achieved its goal of installing 88 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity by 2024. The total installed capacity of solar power systems exceeded 90 GW as of the end of June, according to the Ministry of Economics. The government aims to have 215 GW of solar power capacity by 2030, and expects renewable energy to account for 80% of total electricity consumption. Around 57% of Germany's total electricity consumption in the first half of 2024 came from renewable energy sources.
UK solar success story
In the UK, solar power is set to achieve record levels of generation this summer. Solar power output from June to August is set to increase by almost a quarter compared to the same period last year, according to forecasts compiled for the Guardian by energy market data company ICIS. Meteorological summer solar power is set to reach 5.86 TWh by the end of August, after monthly output was just over 2 TWh for the first time in June.
Although the weather has been relatively bad this summer, the sunnier months allow for a significant amount of solar power generation. The photovoltaic cells in solar panels do not need direct sunlight to function, and they can even work on cloudy days, although in reality they become less efficient when they get too hot.
The government plans to triple the country's solar power capacity by the end of the decade. Towards this goal, the Labour government recently approved three large-scale solar farms in the east of England. Once completed, these farms will provide two-thirds of the electricity provided by rooftop and grid-scale solar in the UK last year. As part of a “rooftop revolution”, the Labour government has pledged to install solar panels on millions more homes to lower household energy bills and help meet its promise to make the UK a clean energy powerhouse.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Solar power is at the heart of our mission to make the UK a clean energy powerhouse and become energy independent. The Energy Minister agreed to more solar power in a week than was installed in the entirety of the previous year… We will continue to accelerate the rooftop solar revolution to ensure new homes are fit for a net zero future.”
Texas survives summer heat with solar and batteries
There's a reason Texas has become America's poster child for solar and battery storage: its power grid is specifically built to prioritize the cheapest source of energy possible. After all, solar and battery storage combined is the cheapest source of electricity right now, and the Lone Star State found itself with an abundance of renewable energy. Texas, like most of the southern U.S., was hit with record heat this summer.
Despite the heatwaves, Texas' grid operator, ERCOT, has yet to ask people to conserve energy, according to High Plains Public Radio. That's a big change from 2023, when ERCOT asked people to conserve energy 11 times throughout the year due to concerns about extreme weather and dwindling power reserves. The grid operator and several energy experts told HPPR that the rapid growth of solar power and grid-scale batteries is the main reason they haven't asked residents to conserve energy this month. “We've seen a big increase in energy storage resources, solar resources, wind resources, and we've also seen some increases on the gas side,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said recently. “All of that is helping to alleviate the shortage situation.”
In fact, the growth in some of these energy sources has been nothing short of record-breaking. Last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were the three busiest days for solar power production in the state's power grid history, according to Gridstatus.io, a website that tracks the performance of the regional electric grid. On the peak day of solar production, Aug. 18, Texas solar farms produced 20,832 megawatts of electricity. That figure doesn't include power produced by rooftop arrays on homes and businesses.
Texas also set new records on Monday and Tuesday for the amount of power delivered by large utility batteries, which could have been the difference between a normal day and a grid emergency. “The previous storage record was broken by 25 percent,” Doug Lewin, author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter, said on social media. “Without this, we would almost certainly have had rolling blackouts.”
According to HPPR, the reason for the rapid increase in solar and battery generation on the state's power grid is simple: Texas has seen a surge in energy demand over the past few years, and frequent energy shortages present a business opportunity for solar farms and battery storage facilities that can be quickly deployed to meet demand. Hot, sunny days — conditions that increase energy use — are also conditions that generate solar power. That solar energy can also be used to charge large batteries that discharge into the power grid when the sun sets on the solar farms but the air conditioners are running at full blast.
summary
Despite the clear benefits of solar energy, there is fierce opposition. People in the UK vehemently oppose the use of solar panels, power lines, substations and farmland. Americans grieve over the potential loss of their rural silos and red barns. The fossil fuel industry actively fosters this discord in order to maintain its revenue streams for as long as possible.
It's hard to imagine that solar power would provoke such fierce opposition. Solar power is free energy; all we have to do is collect it. The supply will run out in billions of years, but if we don't move away from the model of burning fossil fuels to heat water, make steam, turn turbines and make electricity, humanity will be gone long before that happens. We all like to romanticize the past. “We didn't need a welfare state. Everyone did their part. Ah, our old LaSalle was the best. Those were the good old days!”
But we need to think for a moment about the future. If we don't complete the transition to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, the future will be extremely bleak. Our great-grandchildren deserve the opportunity to create their own happy memories of the past, but this will only be possible if they live in a world with an abundant supply of clean, non-polluting renewable energy. The journey has just begun, but it is not over yet. We must ensure that it is completed.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to recommend a guest for the CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here. Latest CleanTechnica.TV Videos Advertisement CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. Read our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comments Policy
