Solar Energy Sets New Record
This summer’s hot and sunny days enabled Europe to set a new record for the output of solar PV. In particular, the spike in output in the UK allowed solar to take over from gas as the number-one energy source in the country.
Now, as we all know, making a significant increase against a base of a relatively small number is easier than making one against a larger number, but we should be happy that solar is coming into its own.
This is great! This should help solar grow significantly in the UK. Due to the increase in generation of electricity because of global warming, more investors will choose to invest in solar since it’s more feasible.
Obviously, solar yield is good on sunny summer days, but on an annual average basis, in places like the UK, there are limits to how much solar is useful. UK summer maximum demand is around 40 to 45 GW, much of which could be met in the summer daytime by solar, however it is much harder to make a major contribution to winter demand which peaks at around 65 GW when there is substantially less light for solar panels to convert. I would put maximum annual contribution at around 10% without a major storage contribution, and perhaps 20% with the majority of vehicles electric, and operating using smart chargers. Batteries will not easily solve the problem of summer nights, let alone the long winter nights with short cloudy days typically seen in winter.We will therefore need a mix of solar, wind, hydro, storage, and a modest backup contribution from gas.