German government releases draft regulation for tenants’ solar power supply

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has published the draft regulation for the support of tenants’ solar power supply.

Under the new regulation, tenants owning a PV system up to 100 kW will be granted a special additional tariff ranging from €0.0221 ($0.0239) per kWh to €0.0380 ($0.0411) per kWh.

This support will be capped at 500 MW per year and limited to PV power systems with a capacity of up to 100 kW. If the allocated capacity is oversubscribed, the exceeding capacity will be removed from the quota assigned for the following year.

The government said the new regulation is expected to be approved by the end of this legislature. The regulation also has to be approved by the relevant EU authorities. The new rules will not be retroactive and will come into force when the regulation will be promulgated.

German solar association Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW-Solar) has welcomed the draft regulation, claiming that tenants will now be able to be part of the German energy transition (Energiewende). “It is high time that landlords were able to take advantage of the cheap offers for solar power,” said BSW-Solar managing director Carsten Körnig. The new regulation, in fact, includes the possibility for tenants to sell power to their landlords, provided that the landlord is located in the same building.

BSW estimates that between 3 and 4 million multi-family houses (approximately 21 million apartments) will be eligible for the tenant solar supply model in Germany. The association also said that participating households can usually cover 25 to 35 percent of their own electricity requirements via the PV system.