German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours of a Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank has said. The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world’s leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed. Germany gets about 20% of its overall annual electricity from renewable sources. The fiscal incentives to achieve this are provided through the state-mandated feed-in-tariff (Fit) that are not without controversy, however. The tariff is the main support for the industry until photovoltaic prices fall further to levels similar for conventional power production. The Fit for solar power adds about 2 cents per kW/h on top of electricity prices in Germany that are already among the highest in the world, with consumers paying about 23 cents kW/h, however the Fit has been falling by between 15% to 30% per year.
More details can be found here:https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/28/solar-power-world-record-germany