Overpowered by the sun

Briefly, ever so briefly, Germany's Energiewende (Energy transition policy) reached a critical point a few weeks ago. On April 18th, at mid-day, the combined wind and solar power production peaked at 35.6 GW, the first time ever that solar and wind had combined to produce more than 50% of power demand on a high-consumption day during the working week.
Germany has not yet beaten the record for grid-tied PV generation of 22 GW, set on 25 May 2012, but few would bet against that also happening this year, as solar parks become an even more prominent part of the landscape.
An impressive 47.7% more photovoltaic energy was produced in 2012 than in 2011. The total potential for PV sites of around 285 000 hectares woudl produce 400 GWp of capacity.
"During summertime in 2011, Germany covered most of peak load with PV - at 27GWp of installed PV capacity," commented Tobias Rothacher, senior manager of Renewable Energies and Resources at Germany Trade & Invest, Germany's foreign trade and inward investment promotion agency. "Going to 52 GWp in a few years, PV will displace non-renewable base load capacities more and more, increasing the daily volatility of electricity prices and thus opening business cases for the implementation of storage, smart-grid and demand side management technologies."
It is those technologies, particularly smart-grid and energy storage, that are not just hot topics but also the subject of a number of government-led initiatives in Europe's leading economy right now. Battery storage technology is under particular scrutiny, with the government pledging up to € 660 per kWh produced by people installing a solar power and storage system in their homes and feeding the excess power back into the national grid.

Problems in power
The problems are twofold: first, that the technology to store up the vast wattages of power produced on sunny or windy days just does not exist. Germany exported more power than ever before in 2012 - indeed, for a time, their electricity prices were negative. Subsequently, some had to be bought back.
Second, and looking longer-term, the intelligence of the grid is not yet truly up to speed. Huge quantities of power are produced, but they aren't always able to go where and when they are needed. This ties in with the first problem, but the technology to make the grid itself a little more pro-active would also help in the longer-term.
Renewable energy thus remains the most popular sector for foreign investors. "Nearly one quarter of the projects registered at Germany Trade & Invest in 2012 came from the fields of photovoltaics and wind energy," said Dr Robert Hermann, md of investor consulting at GT&I. "Although numerous solar companies globally have been forced to close in recent months, investments in the industry still remain profitable. Above all, the change to the feed-in tariff that helps to promote PV, the presentation of the grid development plan, and the preliminary results from the 'Acceleration of Offshore Grid Connections' working group have generated new opportunities and investment potential - particularly in terms of constructing new, smarter grid infrastructure. This also holds true for foreign companies."

Grid co-operation
The more smart grids and energy storage capacity systems grow, the more - theoretically - transnational co-operation and liberalisation in this subject has to improve, as a fully-integrated, pan-European smart grid becomes more and more possible. Much is already being done here. German grid control co-operation is already underway in Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and the Czech republic, while Austria and Poland are making the necessary preparations.
There needs to be emphasis now on integration of renewable energy systems into the grids, including data exchanges and examining how grids would pro-actively deal with future renewable energy volume increases rather than reactively. A north-south flow HVDC extension to help with increases in wind power production from the North Sea is an example. Work also needs to be done to ensure that the benefits of network extension are seen to be acceptable at their known cost, both socially and publically, and especially in an environment/structure including more decentralised energy producers.
All of this has made renewable energies Germany's most significant political football of the moment, and with an election coming up the costs of all this are being painstakingly scrutinised. A volatile fossil fuel market and the price collapse of carbon permits in the EU have made the situation even more complicated. But Germany and the Germans remain committed to the Energiewende. Whoever does create the smartest grid or most durable battery will be a national hero!