Germany

Investigators have accused the Bad Staffelstein-based business of having purchased incorrectly-declared modules from China and evading around €23 million in import duties. The company’s head office and the private apartments of board members have been searched.

Elon Musk has promised a fab near Berlin that will help create up to 10,000 new jobs. Tesla wants to build the facility near the city’s controversial new BER airport.

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.

Germany has long been a global leader in driving acceptance of clean technologies through its progressive energy policies and regulations. Its influence in addressing climate change extends well beyond its borders, and the country is taking an active role to support the global energy transition through international cooperation. Germany has bilateral energy partnerships with approximately 20 countries, and its strong partnership with California is focused on creating a route to the future – a carbon-neutral one. State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Andreas Feicht met with pv magazine to discuss the country’s partnership with California, and its journey toward decarbonization.

The new. more ambitious target is part of a climate protection program Berlin is now defining. The solar sector believes, however, 98 GW will not be enough to ensure the country’s energy transition.

In August alone, around 327 MW of new solar generation capacity was registered in the country. This month the FIT for solar systems up to 750 kW in size will fall another 1.4%.

While the solar industry will welcome the move, the feed-in tariff paid to small systems is still reducing thanks to the volume of new capacity installed every quarter. Announcing a wide-ranging policy package on Friday, Angela Merkel admitted Germany will miss the carbon emission target set for next year.

It took a while, but now the energy giants can finalize the mega deal. Rival energy companies have criticized approval of the deal amid fears Eon could dominate the German market.

Tennet needs more than €4.75 billion to invest in cross-border grid infrastructure between Germany and the Netherlands, as rising volumes of solar and wind are complicating network operations, said Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra in a recent letter to the Dutch parliament, adding that the government may need to privatize the state-owned transmission system operator or sell off a stake in it.