Deployment of solar power to energy grids

The development of solar power by country depends on national economic incentives more than insolation

Insolation

Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...

. Many industrialized nations are installing significant solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

capacity in their grids as a supplement or alternative to other power sources. Long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

resources to be used to displace fossil fuel consumption. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:

Arrays of photovoltaic (PV) modules, mounted on buildings or ground mounted 'solar parks'
Solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for thermal energy . Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United States Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors. Low-temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat...

plants, using concentrated solar energy to make steam. The steam is converted by a turbine to electricity.

Africa

June 7, 2007 Rwanda formally opened Africa's largest solar energy plant, Kigali Solaire

Kigali Solaire

Kigali Solaire is solar power plant in Rwanda and Africas largest grid-linked solar energy installation. It was built in 2007 on Mont Jali near the capital Kigali. The plant is using photovoltaics and has a peak output of 250 kW and an estimated annual output of 325,000 kWh...

, on Mount Jali, 250 kW, near the city of Kigali

Kigali

Kigali, population 965,398 , is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is situated near the geographic centre of the nation, and has been the economic, cultural, and transport hub of Rwanda since it became capital at independence in 1962. The main residence and offices of the President of...

India

Government support and subsidies have been major influences in its progress. India's very long-term solar potential may be unparalleled in the world because it is one of the few places with an ideal combination of both high solar power reception and a large consumer base in the same place. India's theoretical solar potential is about 5000 trillion KW·h

Watt-hour

The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours or 3.6 megajoules.For constant power, energy in watt hours is the product of power in watts and time in hours...

per year (i.e. 600 TW), far more than its current total consumption. The Rajashtan government has set aside a 35,000 km² area of the Thar desert for solar power.

The grid-connected solar power as of June, 2007 was 2.12 MW.

Israel

In 2005, the Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i government announced an international contract for building a 100 MW solar trough plant to supply the electricity needs of more than 200,000 Israelis living in southern Israel. The plan may eventually allow the creation of a gigantic 500 MW power plant, making Israel a leader in solar power production.

Japan

As of 2004, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

had 1200 MW installed. Japan currently consumes about half of worldwide production of solar modules, mostly for grid connected residential applications.

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

installed about 21 MW of photovoltaics in 2006, mostly because of feed in tariffs.

Australia

The largest solar power station in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

is a 400 kW_p (kilowatts, peak) photovoltaic array at Singleton, New South Wales

Singleton, New South Wales

-Industry & Commerce:Major industries near Singleton include coal mining, energy generation, light industry, vineyards, horse breeding and cattle production. Dairying was once a mainstay in the area, but has declined....

.

Other significant solar arrays include the 220 kWp array on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, the 200kWp array at Queen Victoria Market

Queen Victoria Market

The Queen Victoria Market is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia, and at around seven hectares is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The Market is significant to Melbourne's culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register...

in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

and the 160kW_p array at Kogarah Town Square in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

.

A 30 MW_e (megawatts, electrical) solar thermal `coal saver' system is currently under construction at Liddell power station by Macquarie Generation and Solar Heat and Power. The system used `compact linear Fresnel reflector' technology developed in Australia. It will provide solar-powered steam to the 600 MW black coal power station's boiler feedwater heater

Feedwater heater

A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered to a steam generating boiler. Preheating the feedwater reduces the irreversibilities involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynamic efficiency of the system...

. The project is funded by Macquarie Generation in order to meet its requirements under the Australian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) scheme.

A 154 MW_p solar power station in Victoria

Solar power station in Victoria

The Mildura Solar Concentrator Power Station is a proposed photovoltaic heliostat solar concentrator power station is to be built at Carwarp, near Mildura, Victoria, Australia.The provisional timeline for the project is:...

will soon begin construction.

A building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) installation of 60 kW in Brisbane (at the Hall-Chadwick building) has an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) which gives around 10–15 minutes worth of emergency power in the event of the loss of electricity supply. Any power not used by the UPS is connected to the grid and goes towards reducing the building's overall power bills.

Numerous smaller arrays have been established, mainly in remote areas where solar power is cost-competitive with diesel power.

Belgium

In October 2009, the city of Antwerp announced that they want to install 2,500 m² of solar panels on roofs of public building

Building

In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

s, that will be worth 265,000 kW·h per annum.

In December 2009, Katoen Natie

Katoen Natie

Katoen Natie is an international logistics service provider and port operator. The company is present in 28 countries in five continents and employs about 9300 people worldwide. In 2009 the company had 154 logistics platforms...

announced that they will install 800,000 m² of solar panels in various places, including Antwerp. It is expected that the installed solar power in the Flemish Region will be increased by 25%, when finished. That will be the largest installation in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The total cost will be 166 million euros.

Greece

A large solar PV plant is planned for the island of Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

. Research continues into ways to make the actual solar collecting cells less expensive and more efficient. Smaller solar PV farms exist throughout the country.

Germany

Germany is one of the world's top photovoltaics

Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material...

(PV) installers, with a solar PV capacity of almost 17,000 MW.
The German solar PV industry installed 7,400 MW from nearly one-quarter million individual systems in 2010, and solar PV provided 12 TW·h (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity in 2010, about 2% of total electricity. Some market analysts expect this could reach 25 percent by 2050.

Portugal

On April 27, 2006, GE Energy Financial Services, PowerLight Corporation and Catavento Lda announced that they will build one of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power projects. The 11-megawatt solar power plant, comprising 52,000 photovoltaic modules, will be built at a single site in Serpa

Serpa

Serpa is a municipality in Portugal, in Alentejo Region, with a total area of 1104.0 km² and a total population of 16,178 inhabitants. The Guadiana River flows close to the town of Serpa....

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) southeast of Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

in one of Europe’s sunniest areas.

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

is one of the most advanced countries in the development of solar energy, since it is one of the countries of Europe with more hours of sunshine. The Spanish government committed to achieving a target of 12 percent of primary energy from renewable energy by 2010 with an installed solar generating capacity of 3000 megawatts (MW). Spain is the fourth largest manufacturer in the world of solar power

Solar power

technology and exports 80 percent of this output to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Spain

Spain

added a record 2.6 GW of solar power in 2008, increasing capacity to 3.5 GW. Total solar power in Spain

Spain

was 4 GW by the end of 2010 and solar energy produced 6.9 terawatt-hours (TW·h), covering 2.7% of the electricity demand in 2010.

Through a ministerial ruling in March 2004, the Spanish government removed economic barriers to the connection of renewable energy technologies to the electricity grid. The Royal Decree 436/2004 equalized conditions for large-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic plants and guaranteed feed-in tariffs

Feed-in Tariff

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology...

. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis

2008–2009 Spanish financial crisis

The 2008–2011 Spanish financial crisis is part of the world Late-2000s financial crisis. In Spain, the crisis was generated by long term loans , the building market crash which included the bankruptcy of major companies, and a particularly severe increase in unemployment, which rose to 21.4% in...

, the Spanish government drastically cut its subsidies for solar power and capped future increases in capacity at 500 MW per year, with effects upon the industry worldwide.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the second tallest building in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, the CIS Tower

CIS Tower

The Co-operative Insurance Tower, or CIS Tower, is an office tower building on Miller Street in Manchester, England. It was completed in 1962 and rises to 387 feet in height. The Grade II listed building, which houses Co-operative Financial Services, a part of The Co-operative Group, is...

, was clad in photovoltaic panels at a cost of £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

5.5 million and started feeding electricity to the national grid on November 2005.

United States

Solar power in the United States is an area of considerable activity and there are many utility-scale solar power plants. The largest solar power

Solar power

installation in the world is the Solar Energy Generating Systems

Solar Energy Generating Systems

Solar Energy Generating Systems is the largest solar energy generating facility in the world. It consists of nine solar power plants in California's Mojave Desert, where insolation is among the best available in the United States...

facility in California, which has a total capacity of 354 megawatts (MW). Nevada Solar One

Nevada Solar One

Nevada Solar One is a concentrated solar power plant, with a nominal capacity of 64 MW and maximum capacity of 75 MW spread over an area of 400 Acres. The projected CO2 emissions avoided is equivalent to taking approximately 20,000 cars off the road annually. The project required an investment of...

is a solar thermal plant with a 64 MW generating capacity, located near Boulder City

Boulder City, Nevada

Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately from the City of Las Vegas. As of the 2010 census the population of Boulder City was 15,023.Boulder City is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibit gambling....

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. The Copper Mountain Solar Facility

Copper Mountain Solar Facility

The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 48 megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, Nevada. Sempra Generation announced on December 1, 2010 that it had finished the project and the facility was generating electricity...

is a 48 MW photovoltaic solar power

Solar power

facility in Boulder City, Nevada

Boulder City, Nevada

. The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center

DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is a photovoltaic solar power facility in Arcadia, DeSoto County, Florida owned by Florida Power & Light .President Barack Obama attended the plant's commissioning on October 27, 2009...

is a 25 MW photovoltaic solar power facility in DeSoto County

DeSoto County, Florida

DeSoto County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 32,209. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 35,406 . Its county seat is Arcadia, Florida. The county comprises the Arcadia, Florida Micropolitan Statistical Area.- History :DeSoto...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

The Blythe Solar Power Project

Blythe Solar Power Project

The Blythe Solar Power Project is a solar power station under construction in Riverside County, California. The project is being developed by Solarhybrid/Solar Millennium's subsidiary Solar Trust of America, in a joint venture with Chevron Energy Solutions....

is a 500 MW photovoltaic power station under construction in Riverside County, California

Riverside County, California

Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...

. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, is a $2.2 billion solar thermal power project currently under construction in the California Mojave Desert, southwest of Las Vegas, with a planned capacity of 392 megawatts . The project is developed by BrightSource Energy and Bechtel...

is a 392 MW solar thermal power facility which is under construction in south-eastern California. The Solana Generating Station

Solana Generating Station

The Solana Generating Station is a solar power plant which is under construction near Gila Bend, Arizona, about southwest of Phoenix. It is being built by the Spanish company Abengoa Solar, and will have a total capacity of 280 megawatts , which is enough to power 70,000 homes while...

is a 280 MW solar power

Solar power

plant which is under construction about 70 miles (112.7 km) southwest of Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

.

There are plans to build many other large solar plants in the United States. Governor Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...

has signed legislation requiring California's utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy

Renewable energy

sources by the end of 2020.

Canada

Canadian development of grid-connected solar power sites is mostly in the southern part of Ontario, taking advantage of a Feed-in tariff

Feed-in Tariff

that effectively offsets the higher capital cost of solar photovoltaic plants. As of September 2010 the Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant

Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant

Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant near Sarnia, Ontario in Canada, is as of September 2010 the world's largest photovoltaic plant with 80 MWp....

is the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the world.

Mexico

Mexico is already the greatest solar energy producer in Latin America and it is planning a solar trough based plant with 30 MW which will use a combined cycle gas turbine about 400 MW to provide electricity to the city of Agua Prieta, Sonora. The World Bank has financed this project with US$50 million.

Statistics

Below is the summary of installed photovoltaic and more detailed data for some countries.

**Total photovoltaic peak power capacity (MWp)**
Country or Region	Total 2010
World	39,778
European Union	29,328
Germany	17,320
Spain	3,892
Japan	3,617
Italy	3,502
United States	2,519
Czech Republic	1,953
Early Modern France	1,025
Mainland China	893
Belgium	803
South Korea	573
Australia	504
Greece	206
Canada	200
India	189
Slovakia	145
Portugal	131
Austria	103
Switzerland	100
Netherlands	97
United Kingdom	72
Israel	61
Slovenia	36
Mexico	28
Luxembourg	27
Kingdom of Bulgaria	18
Malaysia	15
Sweden	10
Finland	9.6
Norway	9.2
Denmark	7.1
Cyprus	6.2
Turkey	6.0

**Produced, installed & total photovoltaic peak power capacity (MWp) as of the end of 2010**
Country or Region Report Nat. Int.	off grid Δ	on grid Δ	Installed 2010	off grid Σ	on grid Σ	Total 2010	Wp/capita Total	Module Price $/Wp	Feed-in Tariff Feed-in Tariff A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology... USD¢/kW·h
World			16,735			39,778
European Union	9.8	13,013	13,023	29,173	154.4	29,328	58.5
Germany	5	7,406	7,411	50	17,320	17,370	212.3
Spain	1	369	370	21.1	3,787	3,808	82.8
Japan	4.2	986.8	991.0	98.8	3,519	3,618	28.3
Italy	0.1	2,321	2,321	13.5	3,465	3,478	57.6
United States	31	887	918	440	2,094	2,534	8.1
Czech Republic	0	1,490	1,490	0.4	1,952.7	1,953	185.9
Early Modern France	0.1	719.0	719.1	29.4	1,025	1,054	16.3
Mainland China			520.0			893.0
Belgium	0	213.4	213.4	0.1	787.4	787.5	72.6
South Korea	0	131.2	131.2	6.0	649.6	655.6	13.4
Australia	3.8	379.5	383.3	87.8	483.1	570.9	25.2
Canada	24.9	171.7	196.6	60.1	231.0	291.1	8.4
Greece	0.1	150.3	150.4	6.9	198.5	205.4	18.2
India			69.0			189.0
Switzerland	0.2	25.5	25.7	4	69.6	73.6	9.7
Netherlands	0.091	10.58	10.67	5	62.5	67.5	4.1
Austria	0.25	19.96	20.21	3.61	48.99	52.60	6.4
United Kingdom	0.155	6.922	7.077	0	26.4	26.4	0.4
Mexico	2.47	0.80	3.27	23.72	1.30	25.02	0.2
Israel	0.5	21	21.5	2.9	21.63	24.53	3.4
Portugal	0.2	14.25	14.45	2.841	15.03	17.87	1.7
Malaysia	2	0.287	2.287	10	1.063	11.06	0.4
Slovenia	0	6.9	6.9	0.1	8.9	9.0	4.1
Sweden	0.338	0.516	0.854	5.169	3.595	8.764	1.0
Norway	0.32	0	0.32	8.530	0.132	8.662	1.9
Finland	2.0	0	2.0	7.5	0.2	7.6	1.4
Luxembourg	0	1.8	1.8	0	5.7	5.7	52.4
Kingdom of Bulgaria	0	4.3	4.3	0	5.7	5.7	0.8
Denmark	0.2	1.2	1.3	0.540	4.025	4.565	0.8
Turkey	0.9	0.1	1	4.5	0.5	5	0.1
Country or Region Report Nat. Int.	off grid Δ	on grid Δ	Installed 2010	off grid Σ	on grid Σ	Total 2010	Wp/capita Total	Module Price $/Wp	Feed-in Tariff Feed-in Tariff A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology... USD¢/kW·h

Africa

India

Israel

Japan

South Korea

Australia

Belgium

Greece

Germany

Portugal

Spain

United Kingdom

United States

Canada

Mexico

Statistics

See also