Featured in And the winner is… – 01-2023

Small change, big effect

Starting this year, ground-mounted solar modules in Germany can be replaced before the end of their service life, unlocking gigawatt-scale potential for new generation capacity without lengthy permitting processes or the need for new sites. Opinions differ as to what should happen with the decommissioned but still functioning modules, as pv magazine Deutschland’s Sandra Enkhardt reports.

By

Sandra Enkhardt

10 Jan 2023

This solar park has already been repowered. The output increased from around 3 GW to 8 GW. The replaced solar modules showed severe degradation and are stacked on pallets. In this case, they went straight to recycling. | Photo: Karl-Heinz Remmers

At the end of September 2022, a faint cheer could be heard in Berlin. Germany’s economics committee had approved a government motion for further changes in a proposed amendment to the energy security act, the Energiesicherungsgesetz (ENSIG). The amended legislation added the following sentence to Germany’s renewable energy act, “In sentence one, the words ‘due …

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