German Solar Power Decathalon

German Solar Power won the victory in the fourth Solar Decathlon as expected.  It is a contest of net metering : the house's ability to generate electrical power, support the house's requirements, and send the power back to the grid. Germany earned 150 points ( first 100 points came from producing enough power for the house. The next 50 points was based on the amount of surplus energy the houses sent back to the grid, where the German house was ahead significantly.

This PV-based victory reflects the realities of the different nations' foci on renewable energy. Germany has a very strong Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program to encourage solar installations. FIT provides a guaranteed price for a power source for a defined period of time. A FIT enables certainty for financing capital intensive efforts, like solar power, where there can be quite high confidence about future production.

The German FIT is based on the concept of providing strong financial incentives for early adopters, to foster faster adoption and penetration into the market place to build up capacity and lower costs. Thus,starting in 2010, there will be a gradual reduction in the FIT rate for new solar installations every. Within the current structure, solar put on a home can earn up to 45 Euro Cents ( 70 cents US) for the next 20 years for every kilowatt hour produced, with the possibility for another 20% or so for solar on larger buildings.

Even with Germany's relatively poor solar conditions (think northern United States, with clouds), the actual cost of production (amortized over years) is less than half that 45 Euro Cents in most circumstances, so the average homeowner can make be earning money via solar production off their home. And that profit can be even higher as the homeowner can send 100% of the solar electricity to the grid for those 45 Euro cents while paying the far lower general power rates that their utility charges. ( this payment is not for electricity above home needs, but for every kilowatt hour generated by solar power systems.)

Americans some areas where "net metering" enables turning back the electricity meter to zero out the billing costs but there are basically none who, currently, have the ability to earn a direct profit. Thus, having a home that sends power excess to the requirements to the grid at the high cost of US solar electricity would clearly not provide "a good value" in financial terms.

How much solar PV is appropriate for the contest?  Among competitors, the disparities in solar pv investment is a serious item of discussion.  Team Germany, as per above, maximized their solar earning points both in marketability and net metering via plastering their home with solar pv systems.  There is discussion as to potentially limiting the homes for the 2011 competition, perhaps to no more than 7 kilowatts of pv.

There are real world market conditions, such as discussed for Germany's FIT, that foster much greater PV use. Technology and costs are rapidly shifting when it comes to solar PV. If it becomes as cheap as paint to plaster a building with solar PV, why artificially limit the number. Or, if far more effective PV panels come on the market.

Team Germany won out two ways: in market viability and power production. To "level the playing field" might make sense, but an artificial limit on total power production does not make sense for reasons including those above.