Warm and sunny weather gives solar cell owners cheaper power

It has been a record year for solar power, and in the last three months, photovoltaic systems in Denmark generated enough power to cover the yearly power usage of 120,000 households. This is 40 percent more than was produced during the same period in 2017, which was a disappointing summer with few sunny hours.

With its 166 GWhs, the month of May 2018 turned out to be the best month ever in terms of solar power generation. And 2018 in general has been a successful solar power year with the generation of 675 GWhs up to and including July, which is a significant increase compared to 2017, which ended at 529 GWhs.

A measurement of the power generation at the Solar Polaris photovoltaic system at Topdanmark’s head office (1.5 MW) also shows a significant increase of more than 30%. In July 2017 it produced 190.807 kWh and in 2018 it reached 248.108 kWh.

Solar cells on overtime provide cheaper power

One advantage of solar cells is that they can work overtime without problems. Solar cell owners can just lean back and enjoy the shining sun. For many solar cell owners, the many hours of sunshine have been financially favourable because power prices have actually increased this summer. The high temperatures have led many nuclear power plants to lower activities, and low water levels in the Norwegian rivers resulted in less water power. This means that many solar cell owners could deduct the power they generated at a time when power prices were higher than usual and, thus, get cheap power.

In addition to the owners getting more out of their photovoltaic installations, this also has a positive impact on the environment and the climate, because we produce a lot of power without exploiting resources and without polluting.

We do not utilise the potential of the sunrays at all
In spite of this summer being record-high in sun, wind turbines are still the biggest contributor to Danish power generation.

“Despite the prospects of more sunny summers, wind power still dominates the Danish power market. It is a problem when the summer is also short on wind,” says Karsten Hillmann, Managing Director of Solar Polaris, and continues: “This shows that there is evidently a lot more to gain from solar power, which perfectly complements wind power. The price on solar cells declines steadily and combined with innovative solutions and increased digitalisation, a lot more people will choose solar power in the future. The societal value of solar power is also higher than the value of wind power, as solar cells always produce power during the day when the consumption is high. But first and foremost, we should look at how the two power forms complement each other.”

Scientists from DTU, the Technical University of Denmark, have calculated the potential of solar cells in Denmark. If we utilised the roofs of private homes, industrial roof and fields completely, it could provide 70 per cent of the annual power generation. It would be a huge expansion of the existing solar cell system in Denmark. And the solar cells would have to become an integrated part of the construction.

“I think we should plan to have solar cells in all new buildings, because they have become so cheap to install. You can even cover buildings with solar cells at almost the same price per square metre as common building materials”, says Sune Thorsteinsson from DTU.

As part of the green transition of the energy system, solar cells should help supply the power to cover the increasing need for renewable energy, as society keeps increasing the amount of electrical cars, data centres and heat pumps.

Karsten Hillmann from Solar Polaris sets forward some clear messages in terms of what prerequisites there are for construction-sun to become much more prevalent:

• Abolish the requirement of the owner of a building having to be the same as the owner of the photovoltaic system. This would make it possible to draw up attractive leasing models.
• Initially, this should be made possible for manufacturing companies, which are, generally speaking, exempted from paying green taxes, and also, have the biggest potential.
• For liberal professions there could be a gradual introduction of taxes on own production, when the technology is able to carry it.
• Abolish the requirement of formation of a company for municipalities. Municipalities should be able to install solar cells on their own buildings, as is the case with regional and state buildings.

Solar Polaris A/S is one of the largest solar cell companies in Scandinavia, where they have installed hundreds of big photovoltaic systems. Their team of experienced professional experts are specialists in installing photovoltaic systems for private companies, public institutions, housing associations and private homeowners. 

The Solar Group is behind Solar Polaris and has 100 years of experience within the energy sector. Solar is a leading European sourcing and services company with yearly revenue of more than DKK 11 billion.

Solar Polaris believes in a future where alternative energy, including solar power, will play a dominant role in relation to fossil fuel-generated energy. They, thus, have an ambitious goal of being among the leading clean-tech companies nationally and internationally within photovoltaic technology, measured on growth, earnings and innovation.