Within my research I found a list of the top ten countries using solar power:
(this article was written in September 2014)
- Germany 35.5 GW
- China 18.3 GW
- Italy 17.6 GW
- Japan 13.6 GW
- U.S 12 GW
- Spain 5.6 GW
- France 4.6 GW
- Australia 3.3 GW
- Belgium 3 GW
- United Kingdom 2.9 GW
Germany was titles at number one. It actually has been in the past couple years as well. As a matter of fact, it is not expected for Germany to loose its number one spot, and it “still boasts a quarter of the world’s installed PV capacity 26 percent”. Germany’s goal is to produce 35% of its electricity from renewable sources by 202 and 100% by 2050, but on June 2014 Germany succeed on producing 50% if its energy from solar. The internal costs of generating PV electricity is more expensive in electricity made from conventional power plants in Germany.
More towards the middle of the list we have Spain. Spain has a solar farm built to encourage more production of energy from renewable source. This farm is built by the company Abengoa and is locates 20 miles west of Seville. This farm is trailblazing technologies that are being done in other countries, including the United States such as CPS also known as concentrated solar power. This solar farm is shut down when it rain and it has two concrete towers. that collect light reflected by 1,879 large glass mirrors. The mirrors follow the sun.
Last on the list is the United Kingdom. The UK made records when on a sunny day 15% of its energy was from solar power this summer. As of July 2015, there are around 700,00 small- acre installations on the grid. This is enough to power 655,00 households. ” Britain is currently installing solar capacity more quickly than any other European country.” In Wadebridge, a town in the UK, has around 500 houses have solar panels on their roof, which is nearly 10% of homes in the area.
References:
- http://pureenergies.com/us/blog/top-10-countries-using-solar-power/
- http://theweek.com/speedreads/451299/germany-gets-50-percent-electricity-from-solar-first-time
- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/40th-anniversary/a-spanish-breakthrough-in-harnessing-solar-power-1106582/?no-ist
- http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/02/solar-power-provide-record-15-uk-power
I love the images you used for this blog. I think it is very important to support what you spoke about with visuals because it helps people learn better. For this blog it is also cool to actually see what kinds of different projects countries came up with for their solar energy. Nicely written.
I included a solar tree in my post and Jill Swan did as well! Seems like there are many ways to use solar energy in unique ways that I had not considered. I also like the trees because land space is limited and working vertically can increase the amount of area you can cover.