Current wind energy development - US vs Germany

Offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly popular around the globe, and the latest example is Germany, especially after Norbert Röttgen, German Federal Environment Minister, announced that offshore wind power companies can rely on debt guarantees from the government to secure the financing of "10 mega projects" wind turbines in the North and Baltic seas up until the end of 2011.

This may seem as a surprise because very few energy experts expected such a strong support for offshore wind energy in Germany.

According to this new plan, 10,000 MW of offshore wind farm capacity should be built within the next 10 years, and 25,000 MW in the next 20 years, meaning that wind power should play key energy role in ensuring clean energy future for Germany.

This was confirmed by Röttgen's words when he said how he believes that Germany can "reach nearly 100% renewable energy by 2050, and wind power will provide about 50% of this".

This will no doubt attract many investors in Germany, and Germany looks set to become one of the leaders in global clean energy race.

As said above, offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly popular around the globe, and Europe currently leads the way by constantly adding new offshore wind projects. According to the latest reports this year was exceptional for offshore wind energy in Europe as European offshore wind farm installations have exceeded all expectations since more MW have been installed in the first half of this year than in the same period in 2009.

The same cannot be said for United States, and latest reports indicate that US wind energy sector is somewhat stagnating, with latest reports showing how only 1.24 GW of wind energy capacity was added in the first half of this year, less than half of the capacity installed in the same period in both 2008 and 2009.

Many energy experts agree that this slowdown in adding new wind energy capacity is mostly connected with the lack of adequate renewable energy policy that would show more support for new renewable energy projects in United States.

As AWEA chief executive Denise Bode said "strong federal policy supporting the US wind energy industry has never been more important, and Congress has to act now - before time runs out this session".

Photovoltaic market in Germany still looks good

The first two thirds of this year look more than positive for German photovoltaic industry with demand growing by 300% compared to the same period of last year. The numbers show that in the first eight months of this year Germany installed more than 4.8 GWp photovoltaic systems, which translated on global level means that Germany roughly accounts for approximately half of all photovoltaic systems installed worldwide in 2010.

In entire last year, Germany installed 3.8 GWp photovoltaic systems, meaning that this year Germany has strengthened even more its reputation as the world's largest photovoltaic market.

Such large and fast growing market is attracting many solar companies in Germany, especially since Germany also boasts a well established industrial infrastructure, with large equipment supplier base, and qualified and experienced personnel.

Current feed-in-tariffs in Germany are also very supportive of new photovoltaic projects with rates ranging from 24.26 - 33.03 EURc/kWh for installations connected during the remainder of 2010.

It will be very interesting to see whether German photovoltaic market will continue to grow at such accelerated rate in the next few years without the help of such supportive feed-in-tariffs. While some energy experts expect steady decline of German photovoltaic industry the others believe that growth will still continue, regardless of feed-in-tariffs.

German solar industry currently employs more than 50,000 people.

Germany renewable energy statistics

Germany is one of the global leaders in renewable energy, in only ten years time, the share of electricity from renewable energy sources in Germany has increased by almost ten percent, from 6.3 percent in 2000 to about 16.1 percent in 2009.

Renewable energy sector in Germany is currently employing around 220,000 people.

In 2009, renewable energy sources contributed with 10,1 % in Germany's total energy consumption.

Wind power produced 6.5% and bioenergy 5.2% of the total electricity consumption in Germany in 2009.

Germany is the world's second largest (behind United States) user of wind power with the installed wind power capacity of 23,903 MW in the end of 2008.

Wind power industry in Germany currently employs over 70,000 people.

Germany currently has around 9,800 MW of installed solar power capacity. German photovoltaic (PV) industry currently employs close to 50,000 people. In 2009, Germany installed 3,800 MW of solar PV.

Total geothermal capacity installed in Germany is very small, only 8.4 MW in 2007.

Hydropower currently satisfies around 3,5% of the electricity demand in Germany.

The largest photovoltaic power plant in Germany is Strasskirchen Solar Park with the capacity of 54 MW.