Today, we are already experiencing the incredible variety of applications - from solar pocket calculators and solar-powered parking ticket machines to classic roof systems and megawatt solar parks.
Long since part of our everyday life
Photovoltaics has long been part of our everyday life, but is still perceived as an exception. My vision: Photovoltaics is the standard application. Anyone who deviates from this must justify it. The glass façade of the office complex is made of solar modules as a matter of course, the church square in the village is covered with solar tiles and photovoltaics are integrated in the hail protection net as a matter of course.
So we make intelligent use of the versatility of applications in our everyday lives. Facades, roof covering - whether solar roof tiles, in-roof or on-roof systems, settlement and traffic areas, agriculture - photovoltaics is used everywhere as a matter of course.
At least ten gigawatts a year
Technological development has put us on the path to realising this. To make it happen faster, the framework parameters must be adjusted. For example, by setting targets for the use of solar energy on and around buildings or a higher CO2 price.
See also: Climate policies still not ambitious enough
This requires more courage on the part of the political decision-makers, not only, but also with regard to the current amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act. Here, the annual expansion corridor must be increased to at least ten gigawatts, the degression must be weakened and complicated measuring technology for small plants must be dispensed with.
Will to 100 per cent renewable energies
Solar power generation has become so more cost-effective that the planned lowering of the limit for the tendering of roof systems to systems larger than 500 kilowatts will have no significant cost effect. Instead of arguing about the second decimal place, what is needed is reliability and the will for 100 per cent renewable energies. (mfo)
Franz Pöter is Managing Director of the Solar Cluster Baden-Württemberg industry association in Stuttgart.
