German Parliament approves incentives for tenants’ solar power supply

The German Parliament has approved on Thursday the new regulation for the support of tenants’ solar power supply. Under the new rules, a special additional tariff ranging from between €0.022/kWh to €0.038/kWh will be granted to tenants that intend participate in the advantages of a PV system on the roof of larger apartment houses.

The new regulation includes also the possibility for tenants to sell power to their landlords, provided that the landlord is located in the same building or nearby.

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.

Several renewable energy associatiations and organizations, which had criticized a few aspects of the new provisions when the draft regulation was released, have now reiterated their criticisms claiming that the scheme could be significantly improved. The main criticism relates to the fact that tenants’ solar power supply, under these conditions, does not offer the same financial benefits as solar for self-consumption.

The CEO of German solar association BSW-Solar Carsten Körnig, which has also criticized a few points of the new regulation, said, however, that it represents a good opportunity to deliver more PV into German urban centers.

The Germany Ministry of Economy and Energy 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.

Prior to the approval of the new regulation, German companies such as Polarstern and Naturstrom have already begun to plan projects for tenants outside of the scheme, and they now intend to take advantage of the new rules.