German solar generates 40 GW for the first time

From pv magazine Germany

“More than 40 gigawatts of solar power for the first time!” tweeted, yesterday, Bruno Burger, head of energy charts at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.

The record result, of 40.7 GW, was achieved on April 27, at 1 p.m.

The favorable weather situation, with a sunny sky and low temperatures, had previously set new photovoltaic generation records on Friday and also at the weekend. According to German power provider Eon, a total of around 515 million kilowatt-hours of solar power were fed into the grid on Saturday and Sunday, which is more than ever for an April weekend.

Previously, according to Energy Charts, the highest photovoltaic output, of 37.7 GW, was reached at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. This exceeded the old record of June 1, 2020, when 37.2 GW was reached. 

According to the latest statistics from Germany's Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, the country had an installed PV capacity of over 54.3 GW at the end of February. In 2020, around 4.88 GW of new solar was deployed and, for this year, another 6 GW is expected.

EUPD Research forecast that the strongest growth will come from the utility scale segment, as many projects selected in public tenders are expected to reach completion by the end of 2021.

As for large scale, unsubsidized PV plants linked to power purchase agreements, the analyst expects that around 400 MW could be deployed. In February, Enervis published a market report on the European PPA market according to which, there is currently a project pipeline in Germany for subsidy-free photovoltaic projects with a volume of 786 MW.