Germany added almost 200 MW of new PV capacity in September

September saw 198.7 MW of new PV capacity installed in Germany, according to the Federal Network Agency – the Bundesnetzagentur.

That is almost 150 MW less than the amount installed in August, thanks to a fall in the number of new ground-mount projects. In that category, just 16 new plants – with a total output of just under 11 MW – were reported. Of those, only one solar park – of just under 1.25 MW in size – was selected under the country's auction mechanism. The remaining projects are ground-mounted systems with an output of up to 750 kW, which can be realized outside the auction scheme. In August, PV ground-mount systems with almost 114 MW of capacity were reported.

The output of rooftop systems – which are registered separately – reached 187.757 MW in September, also down on the 240 MW registered for August, and amounting to some 6,837 solar systems. Nevertheless, 4,450 of new solar rooftops – almost 110 MW – were commissioned in September.

Under the tenants' solar power supply scheme, almost 5 MW of PV systems were registered by the end of September. Since the introduction of the scheme in summer 2017, there have been 256 installations, amounting to 6.12 MW. In September, 36 new notifications were received by the Bundesnetzagentur, mainly for longer-term installations. Only nine projects, totalling 1 MW, went online in September.

FIT degression remains at 1%

The Federal Network Agency has also recalculated the degression rate of solar FITs for the next three months, based on the scale of newly registered PV systems between April and September. According to the authority, newly installed PV capacity in the period added up to 1,596.57 MW. As a result, the rate the FIT payment reduces will remain at 1% per month for the next quarter.

That means this month, the feed-in tariff for PV systems of up to 10 kW in size will fall to €0.1171/kWh. For plants up to 40 kW it will be €0.1138/kWh and for plants up to 100 kW, it is €0.1017 cents/kWh. Other systems up to 100 kW in scale receive a fixed tariff of €0.0809/kWh.

The tariff to be applied in direct marketing – obligatory for all plants above 100 kW – will be reduced analogously. Depending on the size and type of installation, the values ​​in November are between €0.0849 and €0.1211/kWh.

Solar Power Europe updates outlook for 2018

Germany has had around 2,200 MW of newly registered PV systems in the first nine months of this year, making it likely the national annual target of 2,500 MW will be hit for the first time in five years. According to the Federal Network Agency, total construction of PV systems subsidized under the EEG – the Renewable Energy Sources Act – was 45.146 GW at the end of September.

In a webinar on Tuesday, SolarPower Europe said it expects around 3 GW of capacity to be reached in Germany this year. Less than 24 hours later, UK Energy Minister Claire Perry took a swipe at German renewable energy policy by recounting a recent climate change meeting of energy ministers in Bonn where she saw coal-laden barges on the Rhine despite the German government having made ideological decisions not to use coal and energy “except they do”.

Germany's new capacity, says Solarpower Europe, will make it by far the largest market in Europe. The industry lobby group expects new installed capacity of 9.5 GW in the EU, and 12.6 GW on the European continent, taking into account Turkey's data.