By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 5, 2007

ESPENHAIN, Germany -- When it opened here in 2004 on a reclaimed mining dump, the Geosol solar plant was the biggest of its kind in the world. It is so clean and green that it produces zero emissions and so easy to operate that it has only three regular workers: plant manager Hans-Joerg Koch and his two security guards, sheepdogs Pushkin and Adi.

The plant is part of a building boom that has made gloomy-skied Germany the unlikely global leader in solar-generated electricity. Last year, about half of the world's solar electricity was produced in the country. Of the 20 biggest photovoltaic plants, 15 are in Germany, even though it has only half as many sunny days as countries such as Portugal.

The reason is not a breakthrough in the economics or technology of solar power but a law adopted in 2000. It requires the country's huge old-line utility companies to subsidize the solar upstarts by buying their electricity at marked-up rates that make it easy for the newcomers to turn a profit. Their cleanly created power enters the utilities' grids for sale to consumers.

The law was part of a broader measure adopted by the German government to boost production of renewable energy sources, including wind power and biofuels. As the world's sixth-biggest producer of carbon-dioxide emissions, Germany is trying to slash its output of greenhouse gases and wants renewable sources to supply a quarter of its energy needs by 2020.

Since the Geosol plant was built, it has been eclipsed in size by six other German solar plants, including the new world's-largest, the Solarpark Gut Erlasee in Bavaria, which has more than double the capacity. Last month, construction began on yet another monster solar plant on an old military base in Brandis, about 12 miles north of Espenhain. Once completed, it will generate 40 megawatts, or enough to power about 10,000 homes.

German officials readily acknowledged that they are embracing solar technology not just for its environmental benefits. German firms that manufacture photovoltaic panels and other components have prospered under the new energy act and now employ 40,000 people. An additional 15,000 people work for companies in the solar-thermal business, which make heating systems for homes and businesses.

Matthias Machnik, an undersecretary for the German ministry of the environment, said the country can't hope to compete in the long term with perpetually sunny ones in generating solar power. But it hopes to expand its exports of solar technology and become the leader in that field as well.

"Unless climate change accelerates, we only have a certain amount of available hours of sunshine," Machnik said in an interview. "For us, of course we will use solar power, but it is more important to secure the know-how for research and development."

Last year, German exports accounted for 15 percent of worldwide sales of solar panels and other photovoltaic equipment, according to industry officials. German companies hope to double their share of the global market, which amounted to $9.5 billion last year and is growing by about 20 percent annually, said Carsten Koernig, managing director of the German Solar Industry Association, a trade and lobbying group.

"It's been very important to create the necessary market in Germany," Koernig said. "We not only want to master the German market, but to conquer the world market as well."

For now, the technology remains expensive and barely registers as a fraction of total energy production -- less than 0.5 percent. The government hopes to increase that figure to 3 percent by 2020.

Industry supporters, however, say there are other factors that favor solar production in the long term.

One is that other forms of non-fossil fuel energy are falling out of favor. The government has decided to phase out all nuclear power plants by 2020. And while Germany is also the world leader in wind power, a popular backlash is building against the towering wind turbines that have proliferated in farmers' fields across the country and are criticized as eyesores.

In Espenhain, local officials have warm words for their solar plant, owned by the Berlin-based company Geosol. The facility was constructed on land that had served as a dumping ground for millions of tons of coal dust produced by nearby mines since the 1930s. The property had been rendered unusable for agriculture or other purposes.

Two decades ago, the region was part of communist East Germany and known for that coal industry, which employed 8,000 people. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, most of those jobs quickly disappeared, but this part of the state of Saxony continued to suffer from air and water pollution from the mines.

"This region was known as the dirtiest in all of Europe," said Juergen Frisch, mayor of Espenhain. "The solar plant came at a very good time for Espenhain. It's helped to change our image."

Unlike the coal mines, the solar plant makes almost no noise, save for the low thrum of a few outdoor air-conditioning units that cool the electrical transformers. The plant, with 33,500 solar panels, sits on a 37-acre site in a field off a rural road and requires scarcely any maintenance.

On a tour of the property, Koch, the manager, acknowledged that eastern Germany is not the ideal site for collecting the sun's rays.

Contrary to popular expectations, however, the solar panels work fine on drizzly days, he said, although they are able to generate only a quarter to half the usual output of electricity. "We are still producing at the moment, even when we have overcast or rainy conditions," he said cheerfully.

Special correspondent Shannon Smiley in Berlin contributed to this report.