Although the United States is rapidly catching the rest of the world in alternative energy thanks to the newest round of research funding thru the Alternative Energy Initiatives put forth into the Federal Budget by President Bush, Germany is giving the United States a run for our money. Germany has just successfully opened the worlds largest solar power plant.

This should power up 3500 households and it has over 1400 high-efficiency solar panels and will be operated by Solon AG. That is going to be about 12 Megawatts of power, which is significant indeed. How much did it cost? Some 70 million Euros and it took almost a year and a half to complete. Indeed this is a major step forward for Germany and impressive to say the least.

Germany has so far in the last year invested nearly 4 Billion in new solar projects and although the socialist country cannot do as much as the United States with its investments due to the America’s strength in entrepreneurialism, that is some serious money and it is in Euros also. Of course even with all this power solar in Germany like the US still only accounts for less than one-percent of what is used currently.