IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2015 - 72

Moreover, the recent French energy transition law includes the
restructuring of existing RES support schemes that should be
replaced by a premium or a contract for differences.

Germany
Germany has some of the most ambitious targets for renewable electricity production world-wide, aiming at a share
of 35% by 2020, increasing to 50% by 2030, and reaching
65% of energy consumption by 2040. Some German states
have formulated even higher targets. The state of RhinelandPalatinate, for instance, is aiming at 100% by 2030.
At the end of 2014, 38.2 GW of PVs, distributed over
1.5 million power plants and almost completely connected
to the distribution network, were installed. An additional
40.4 GW of wind-generation capacity was installed, including 1 GW offshore (see Table 1). In 2014, wind energy and
PVs already covered 15.6% of German demand, frequently
reaching maximum instantaneous energy penetration levels
of more than 45%. On Sunday 11 May 2014, wind and PVs
reached a maximum penetration level of 56.3% at around
1:00 p.m.; together with biomass and hydro power, renewable production reached more than 70% (see Figure 5). As
wind and PVs in Germany are to a very high degree connected to the distribution grid, it is estimated that about
45-50% of the power production at 1:00 p.m. came from
distributed generation.

Finally, offshore wind, after a long and difficult start, is
gaining momentum. In 2015, up to 2 GW of new offshore
wind power plants are expected to go online, with another
6 GW added between 2016 and 2017. The unique part of the
German offshore development is its grid connection. Most of
the offshore wind is constructed in the North Sea, typically
more than 100 km from shore. Hence, voltage source converter-based high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology is typically used. So far, three HVDC connections with
400 MW, 800 MW, and 576 MW are already in operation.
Another five connections with an average rating of around
900 MW each are currently under construction to be finished in 2017.
To move the offshore wind power from the German
shoreline-which already has large amounts of onshore
wind power installed-to southern Germany, three HVDC
connections with 2,000 MW capacity each are currently
planned. However, the progress is very slow because public
as well as political support of the project is rather low.

Solar Eclipse in Germany
In March 2015, with a PV capacity of 38 GW, Germany had been
preparing for the coming solar eclipse for several months, taking appropriate measures to manage the risk and maintain system
security. In general, the path of an eclipse represents an astronomical event that can be predicted quite precisely in advance.

70
60

Power (GW)

50
40
30
20
10
0
0

PV
Biomass
Anthracite

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Time

Wind
Pumped Storage
Brown Coal

Hydro Power
Seasonal Storage
Export

Others
Gas
Load

Oil
Nuclear

figure 5. The load, export, and power generation from different energy sources in Germany on 11 May 2014. (Source:
Energynautics.)
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november/december 2015

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