A good friend and loyal reader from Germany sent over this link to a recent Bloomberg.com 'Graph of the Day.' The graph cannot, unfortunately, be reproduced here. However the gist of it is that 4,455 megawatts of solar panels will be installed on roofs and fields in the U.S. and Canada in 2012 while 3,500 megawatts will be installed in Germany. This is a decline from 7,450 megawatts last year in the latter. The last time North Americans installed more than Germans was around the time we were all concerned about Y2K computer problems. Bloomberg's analysts point out that subsidies for solar installation are being trimmed in July as the nation is nearing capacity. Meanwhile, they suggest that there is plenty of room for growth in the US and Canadian markets.
Germany might be nearing capacity, but there is probably still some room to grow. Additionally, as new technologies improve efficiency rates, natural turnover to better products should occur over time. However, even if there is some remaining capacity, will growth occur without government subsidies? It is tough to tell, but interestingly the reduction in subsidies this year could be one explanation for the relatively high number of hits we regularly receive for our post on the solar REIT concept in Germany. The idea behind this is that in a subsidy-free or low subsidy operating environment, solar development might still be stimulated if the flexible ownership rules of the real estate world were available to solar owners. More on this topic can be found in English here and in German here.
Thanks to C.S.
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