The German photovoltaic market is clearly gaining momentum. This is confirmed by the latest data on new installations registered by the federal energy market regulator Bundesnetzagentur. The real investment boom in German photovoltaics, however, is yet to come.
This year, Germany may approach the record levels of investment a decade ago, when the photovoltaic installation – driven by high, state-guaranteed energy tariffs – reached 7 GW per year.
This year, the German photovoltaic sector has a chance to repeat those record results. This is indicated by the data on investments in PV, recorded in March by Bundesnetzagentur.
As reported by the German “PV Magazine”, the federal energy market regulator registered in March new photovoltaic power plants with a total capacity of 731.3 MW, which were implemented under the support system included in the German RES Act (guaranteed for 20 years in the tariff system guaranteed or in the auction mechanism). This package includes smaller rooftop PV systems settled in the feed-in tariff system – installations with a capacity of 348 MW.
In addition, the Bundesnetzagentur also registered in March eight solar systems with a total capacity of 175.87 MW, which were built outside the support scheme, and their owners did not benefit from subsidies or public energy buy-back guarantees. The largest of these investments has a capacity of 151 MW and was carried out by the energy concern EnBW in Brandenburg bordering Poland.
In total, the power of photovoltaic power plants in the register of the federal regulator in March increased by over 900 MW, while in the entire first quarter of 2022, the potential of German photovoltaics increased by about 1.9 GW. The accumulated capacity of the PV power plants in Germany exceeded the level of 58 GW at the end of March.