Bundesnetzagentur

In September, PV systems with a total generation capacity of 287 MW were registered in the country. The feed-in tariff has fallen again for this quarter as a result of the new capacity additions.

The average price in the October round of Germany’s solar capacity procurement program fell back below the five-cent mark, helped by expansion of the quota for solar on Bavarian agricultural land. Nineteen of the 27 projects allocated by the Federal Network Agency were such schemes.

After a strong start to the year, demand for PV systems has slowed because of FIT reductions. Solar subsidies will fall by a further 1.4% per month until November.

In the first four months of the year, over 1.6 GW of solar power generation capacity came online in the country. Next month the FITs for rooftop PV will fall by 1.4%.

The strong growth registered in the first quarter of the year – when 1.27 GW of new PV was deployed – will prompt a 1.4% reduction in the FIT price for the three-month period up to July.

Last month’s jump in new installations was mainly due to the pending FIT cut for installations not larger than 750 kW.

While installations up to 750 kW continue to grow, compared to June, overall capacity slightly decreased. This is due to the fact less utility-scale projects were commissioned in July, compared to the preceding month. Solar subsidies will decrease by another percentage point in September.

In particular, the rooftop PV segment continues to drive the market in Germany. For ground-mounted systems, newly registered PV capacity for May was approximately 37.5 MW.

Demand for rooftop solar continues to be high as only around 26.5 MW of additional capacity in April came from ground-mounted PV. FITs for installations up to 750 kW in size will remain flat in June.

New additions for December totaled 157.9 MW. More than half of this capacity comes in the form of ground-mounted solar PV power plants.