Germany adds 111 MW of solar in March

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Germany registered approximately 111 MW of new PV systems in March, according to the latest statistics released by the German grid regulator Bundesnetzagentur. Of this capacity, however, only 8.7 MW was for five ground-mounted PV projects. Two of these plants were selected in the auctions for large-scale PV projects held in December 2015 and August 2016, respectively. In February and January, the newly installed PV capacity was 122.4 MW and 117.2 MW, respectively.

In March, 11 projects ranging in size between 700 kW and 750 kW were connected to the grid in Germany. Since the beginning of this year, the construction of ground-mounted PV plants with a capacity of up to 750 kW is allowed outside the auction mechanism. Prior to the new legislation, this size limit was set at 200 kW.

The Bundesnetagentur has also announced that the new FIT rates for May, June and July will be reduced by 0.25% compared to the current level. The rates of the FIT incentive for this 3-month period are set by the grid regulator depending on the development volume registered between October 2016 and March 2017, which was of 1,074 MW. The FIT reduction was implemented, despite the fact that the government’s desired expansion corridor of 2.5 GW per year was not reached. Since September 2015 there was no more FIT digression, due to the fact that this target was not reached.

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FITs for rooftop PV systems up to 100 kW will range from €0.1066/kWh to €0.1227/kWh depending on the system size in May. All other installations up to 100 kW will be entitled to receive a FIT of €0.0849/kWh. In June and July, these rates will be reduced by €0.003/kWh and €0.002 kWh, respectively.

As of the end of March 2017, Germany had reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 41.54 GW.

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