Fotoeins Fotografie

You cannot possibly take in every exhibit inside the massive Deutsches Museum (German Museum) in a single afternoon or even an entire day. At some point, the mind short circuits, feet will ache, and the stomach sends urgent “I am hungy” messages to the brain. But for a physicist and scientist by training, this museum is a real joy.

With the temporary exhibition “Auf zu neuen Energien” (Onto new forms of energy), I learn about “green power” in Germany, about where in the country solar and wind power is best “collected” or generated. Figuring that out depends on lots of specific meteorological data. The two figures/plots show average annual solar incident radiation at the surface and average annual wind speed at an elevation of 80 metres (typical height of a wind turbine). The sunniest areas indicated with red above are in the southern quarter of the country, and the windiest regions indicated with red below are by the open seas in the north and up in highlands and mountains.

Average annual solar incidence, in kilowatt-hours per square metre (1 kWh/m^2 = 3600 kJ/m^2). Courtesy of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Meteorological Service), this plot shows how the country’s southern quarter receives the most sun.

Average annual wind speed at an elevation of 80 metres, the typical height of a wind turbine. Wind speeds are shown between 3 to 10 metres per second (11 to 36 kilometres per hour). The reddest areas in the northern lowlands by the sea and in highlands and mountains have highest average wind speeds above 7 m/s (25 km/h). Image/plot from Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Meteorological Service).

I made all three photos above on 23 Feb 2017. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-kpM.