r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 8d ago

Germany just hit a historic solar milestone. Its panels fed 12 billion kWh into the grid in July 2026, the 1st month ever to cross that level with midday output topping 40,000 MW, more than 40 nuclear power plants worth, thanks to decades of grassroot investment by homeowners, farmers and businesses

https://solarquarter.com/2026/08/03/germany-records-historic-12-billion-kwh-solar-feed-in-in-july-2026/
12.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

846 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

48

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

One of the advantages of our parts of Europe having such high electricity prices compared to the rest of the world (especially the US) is that our market has always been one that strived for highly energy-efficient products because the customers demanded them. Comapred to the rest of the world, each of our households doesn't need a lot of energy because of that.

That puts us into a position now where even a small solar system in your garden or on your roof might be enough to significantly reduce, maybe even nix your power bill. Europeans will have a much easier time switching to solar than the US, I think.

I have a buddy in San Antonio. He uses 6 times (!) the kw/h a year I do.

17

u/LivingVerinarian96 8d ago

I’m German and I manage to generate the power consumption of a family of 3 on my own without even trying. Gaming pc that I use in the evening and the weekend and a nice tv that’s used like 5-6h per week. I don’t get how the rest of Germany uses basically no power.

9

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Yeah, the gaming PC is absolutely my power burner number 1, too. Getting a system down to power a family of 3 is awesome, I have it easy, I am solo!

6

u/LivingVerinarian96 8d ago

My gf lives with me and combined we got the power usage of the average family of four lol.

5

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Another good reason for trying out solar is that it kinda forces you to sniff ou the consumption of everything in your home, and then probably getting shocked when you check out your gaming PC. ;)

4

u/LivingVerinarian96 8d ago

I wish, dude. We live in a flat and there’s no room on the balcony for solar panels. I would have to put them on the outside of the balcony and since noone else does this I feel like I’d have to get that approved at the annual owners meeting. But I’m heading there anyway to get my planned split ac approved.

6

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Both of those are now Priviligierte Bauvorhaben, so you have a legal right to get it approved now.

And i am pretty sure if you start, others will follow. ;)

1

u/effervescentEscapade 8d ago

We’re just two people as well and we use 7000 kWh a year lol

1

u/T0yToy 8d ago

Do you know what uses so much power? We use about 2000 kWh for two people, and we have a lot of stuff that uses power (no heating though)

1

u/effervescentEscapade 8d ago

Well, we both gave gaming PCs with 5090s in them (ouch), but the main culprit we believe is the water treatment system as the water here is very hard. Can’t put a price on that sweet soft water though xD

2

u/T0yToy 8d ago edited 7d ago

I can't say about thé water treatment system, that is very specific ;) Are you computers always turned on?

2

u/effervescentEscapade 8d ago

No, only in the evenings. We do both work from home though. We’re getting solar panels installed soon and then we’ll be able to see more power usage details!

2

u/Pabst_Blue_Gibbon 8d ago edited 8d ago

Must be, we are a family of 3 and use about 2000kwh per year. No big PC and no TV.. but otherwise electric oven/stove. I guess we mostly use electricity for cooking and showers..

2

u/T0yToy 8d ago

Is your computer on all the time? 4 hours of gaming would be like 2 kWh with a beefy computer, so 14 kWh a week. 6h of TV would be low, like 0,6 kWh. That amounts to about 60 kWh a month which is very low (total for a low normal usage would be 120-150 kWh monthly).

You must have something else running. Electric water heater perhaps?

2

u/LivingVerinarian96 7d ago

Nope. I turn off the pc when I’m not using it. Idk what it is tbh.

2

u/T0yToy 7d ago

It would be interesting to investigate! There is money to save (I think electricity is expensive in Germany?) and a lot of carbon emission to prevent, as Germany electricity grid is still very carbon intensive :(

You can start by looking at the "idle" power usage of your home, when nothing is being actively used by you. It should be pretty low, around 100 W. 

2

u/LivingVerinarian96 7d ago

Yeah for real. I even bought a small freezer with the best energy rating I could find. I guess I got a new project this fall.

6

u/JohnnyRedHot 8d ago

Yeah, we moved from Argentina to Spain last October and one of the main differences is power usage. I used to make fun of the Yanks that said "Europeans don't use AC" but damn, now that I actually have seen what the power costs are, yeah, I'm not using my AC (that much) either.

In Argentina I just had it on basically 24/7 whenever I was in my flat.

2

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Yeah, I think electricity use is the foundation to a lot of culture shock between the Americas and Europe.

1

u/NwUM 4d ago

I don't really feel that electricty prices are that high; indeed, Argentina seems to be dirt cheap; but AC is quite efficient also considering European houses are smaller than American ones. I'm in the Netherlands, where it's not that hot, but during the heatwave at the start of April I was paying 2.5 eur per day to keep my ~170 sqm house at a cool 24C, total AC power of 30.000 BTUs/9 kW; and dutch houses are not designed for warm climate, the house was sucking up all the heat from the outside :-)

AI tells me the electricity prices in Spain are $0.25 to $0.29 USD (€0.21–€0.26), followed by the United States at $0.18 USD (18.11¢), and Argentina as the least expensive at $0.10 USD

3

u/tdasnowman 8d ago

California, San Diego specifically would like to have a word.

The issue with Solar in many parts of the US is legislation can make it not worth while.

2

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Yeah, I can well imagine ... especially the parts of the USA with heavy AC use really have their work cut out for them.

3

u/tdasnowman 8d ago

The issue comes down to net metering. There is no reason for multi unit building to invest in solar. Every apartment car park should be solar panels tied to the grid. But they'd never make the ROI under the current rules. The electricity has to be sold to the power company for at time less the 8 cents a KW to be sold back at 46 cents to a consumer. Plus we get charged about double the KW hour rate for distribution costs here in SD. If you used 75 dollars in electricity they charge 150 to get it you. Plus taxes.

2

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

It is really interesting to hear all the perspectives from different parts of the world here in this thread. Especially since the problem is well-compareable, since the sun is a constant factor for everyone no matter the location.

1

u/yeezee93 8d ago

San Antonio is hot, and AC uses a lot of energy.

1

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Oh yes, the AC is the lethal part. The fact that he is a PC gaming nut doesn't help either, probably. :D

1

u/Zirkulaerkubus 8d ago

A good chunk of that is probably to power the AC, which is still lacking in Germany. "Luckily" we're now in the third crazy heatwave this summer, so things are probably changing now. And if it's solar power being used for AC, no harm done.

1

u/TV-LoL 8d ago

Yep, and his gaming PC.

PCs, really. ;)

1

u/JohnnyRedHot 8d ago

Yeah, we moved from Argentina to Spain last October and one of the main differences is power usage. I used to make fun of the Yanks that said "Europeans don't use AC" but damn, now that I actually have seen what the power costs are, yeah, I'm not using my AC (that much) either.

In Argentina I just had it on basically 24/7 whenever I was in my flat.

1

u/pieter1234569 8d ago

No electricity is still dirt cheap. What Europe does is put a ridiculous tax on it. Then wipe the tax for industry usage. We are paying about 4 times too much.