From pv magazine Germany.
According to the latest statistics released by Germany’s Federal Network Agency – the Bundesnetzagentur – new PV systems with a combined capacity of 304.6 MW were connected to the grid last month.
Of that figure, around 244 MW were rooftop systems and 29 MW came from ground-mounted plants built outside the public tender scheme. Some 911 kW of rooftop capacity was installed under the tenant electricity scheme.
In the first four months of the year, 1.6 GW of new solar capacity was added in Germany to take the country’s cumulative solar capacity to 47.5 GW by the end of April. That means there are 4.5 GW left before the subsidy cap imposed by the German renewable energy law – the EEG – will be reached.
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As a result of the sustained development, the FITs available to new solar systems will fall by another 1.4% next month.
Bruno Burger, head of energy charts at research institute Fraunhofer ISE, pointed out last year’s amendments to the EEG, which introduced additional FIT cuts, were already leaving their mark on new construction. “The monthly degression of feed-in tariffs introduced by the Energiesammelgesetz law of December 20, 2018, is now leading to monthly declines in photovoltaic expansion rates, following the pull-forward effects of January,” said Burger. In addition, the annual construction allowance for new PV capacity was reduced from 2,500 to 1,900 MW. “Both measures are slowing down the expansion of photovoltaics and thus also the energy turnaround,” added Burger.
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If Herr Burger is right, German householders are incredibly sensitive to trivial price changes, here a mere 1.4% reduction in an FIT around 10c/kwh, or 0.14c. Do you know anybody whose decision to instal PV panels or not would be changed by a spreadsheet analysis of this? If there is an effect, it’s more likely to be psychological. One would expect any such effect to be swamped by the impending end to new FITs, at least a 50% cut if feed-in thereafter will be at the wholesale rate. I’m still predicting a speed-up, possibly leading to a panicky last-minute extension of the deadline.