German Development Bank granted incentives to 6,900 residential solar-plus-storage systems in 2017

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Last year, German state-owned development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) accepted a total of around 6,900 loan applications for the support of residential PV projects combined with storage solutions.

These loans represent €123 million, a KfW spokesman told pv magazine. These numbers, however, are provisional, as December’s figures must still be assessed accurately. According to initial estimates, in the last month of 2017, more than 500 loans were granted worth around €9 million.

KfW's monthly evaluation shows that most of the loans were approved in June of last year. Prior to the reduction of the rebates by the middle of the year, 802 loan applications with a volume of more than €14 million had been approved.

In March and July, 800 and 785 loans were awarded, respectively. In October, loans amounted to 482, while in November 338 applications were approved. In August, approved loans totaled 381.

The Federal Ministry of Economics had anticipated the 13% reduction of the rebate, which was originally planned for January 1, 2018, for October 1. At the same time, it increased federal funding for the repayment subsidy to such an extent that funding for up to 10,000 PV battery storage systems last year would have been sufficient.

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In 2016, KfW approved around 6,500 loan applications worth €105 million, until funds expired in October.

At the turn of the year, the amount of the repayment allowance which is financed by federal funds, has been lowered again from 13% to 10%.

As in the past year, the Federal Ministry of Economics has to provide the funds for this in its provisional budget. If this will be the case still remains unknown.

The ministry has not responded to pv magazine's request for clarification on this matter. However, KfW does not expect major delays. “We see specific difficulties due to the provisional financial management as well as in the past years,” said the spokesman.

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