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Interesting article on countries that produce the most solar energy

Gary Tansley's picture
Project Finance & Funding Specialist, BGSE

Construction & Project Funding Worldwide. Renewable Energy / Green Tech / Biomass & much more. BGSE works with a boutique panel of niche, specialist lenders. BGSE DO NOT CHARGE FOR OUR...

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  • Jul 1, 2022
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This is a very interesting article from investopedia but not everyone agrees with how they have carried out the way the list has been created or the criteria. There are other ways of measuring this. What are your views?

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/092815/5-countries-produ...

 

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Matt Chester's picture
Matt Chester on Jul 1, 2022

What are the differing ways in which total solar can or should be measured? 

Gary Tansley's picture
Gary Tansley on Jul 1, 2022

If you rather rate per capital installation of photovoltaics, only Germany exceeds Australia, which is roughly on a par with Italy and a couple other
Southern European countries, according to Wikipedia. The US is on a par with the UK, Spain and France, and China is fourth along with Chile, South Africa and Canada.

Maybe a better measure of how much work each country has to do to reach zero fossil fuels in the electrical power area, is the percentage of all green energy produced in a country as a fraction of total electric capacity.

Michael Keller's picture
Michael Keller on Jul 6, 2022

Seems to me the measurements should be net residential rate, net commercial rate, and net industrial rate plus all production subsidies ($/MWh) and any fees attached to the bills. These are all hard numbers that can be straightforwardly obtained. No externality costs and similar qualitative costs that simply cannot be measured while being subject to all manner of mischief and abuse.

These figures provide a better picture of the economic of green energy because hidden impacts are better reflected in the bottom-line cost.

Correlations can be made relative to the mix of energy production resources and likely impact on net costs.

As a example, residential rates in California are about 3 times that of Kansas. The reason lies directly with a significantly higher penetration of green energy in California, while Kansas uses about 45% coal. Is this good or bad? Well if you are a rich liberal in California, you probably do not care because you can afford your electric bill. The poor and middle class might really start questioning what the Democratic Party is doing to their families.

Gary Tansley's picture
Thank Gary for the Post!
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