Germany's millionth photovoltaic system is now connected to the power grid, according to industry group BSW-Solar. The milestone installation is located on the roof of the Institute for Sports Equipment Research and Development (Institut fur Forschung und Entwicklung von Sportgeraten in Berlin.
‘When photovoltaics first took off in Germany and the thousand-roof program was launched in the fall of 1990, nobody expected that we would already reach the one-million-system mark by 2011,’ says Prof. Dr. Klaus Topfer, executive director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam.
For this year, BSW-Solar expects an expansion of photovoltaic capacity by around 5 GW and that total installed capacity could reach 22 GW. Currently, solar power systems in Germany cover approximately 3% of gross electricity consumption.
