Germany needs 446GW of photovoltaic installed capacity

    According to the latest German research, there is huge room for growth in solar photovoltaic installed capacity. Experts agreed that if Germany wants to achieve its energy transition and carbon neutral goals, it must increase the capacity of Solar Panel At Home photovoltaic, wind and solar thermal energy on a large scale. "In order to use renewable energy to meet 100% of our electricity needs, we must install 6 to 8 times more photovoltaics than today." said Christoph Kost, head of the energy system and energy management team of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. This increase will correspond to 303 to 446 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity.

    At the same time, according to a study conducted by researchers on behalf of Greenpeace, the output of solar thermal systems must be at least tripled from the current 15GW to 45 to 49GW.

    Such strong growth in the next few years will require a lot of space. However, if agricultural areas, artificial lakes, exterior walls, parking lots, streets, noise barriers or vehicles are used, the installed capacity of solar energy can reach 3,160 GW.

    The study further pointed out that the significant growth of photovoltaics could create thousands of new jobs in Germany. For example, the establishment of vertically integrated photovoltaic production in Europe will create approximately 750 jobs per GW of module manufacturing capacity, and the installation of new photovoltaic power plants will add 3,500 jobs per GW.