Germany: PV FITs decrease 1.8% in May

30 April 2013

Germany’s Federal Network Agency officially confirmed that 290 MW worth of photovoltaics were installed in March in Germany. Consequently, FITs will sink by 1.8% between May and July.

Confirming figures leaked by the Federal Environment Minister mid-April, new photovoltaic systems worth 290.47 MW were installed in Germany last month, meaning solar subsidies will decrease by 1.8% in May.

As such, FITs for large rooftop and ground mounted systems bigger than one MW will total €0.1082/kWh. Meanwhile, for small roof systems , operators will receive between €0.1323 and €0.1563/kWh.

The FITs will also decrease by 1.8% on June 1, and July 1. Consequently, photovoltaic plant operators will receive between €0.1044 and €0.1507/kWh, depending on plant type and size. At the end of July, the Federal network Agency will publish the monthly tariff degression for the next three months.

As the statistics from the agency revealed, no more solar parks bigger than 10 MW are currently being built in Germany. Such projects have not been eligible for FITs since the last EEG (German renewable energy law) changes. The biggest PV plant that was registered in March is located in Saxony, Germany and has a capacity of 9.834 MW. Only 35 of the registered 11,509 PV plants had a capacity of more than 1 MW.

In the first quarter of 2013, 775 MW of capacity went online in Germany. The degression is calculated via the new photovoltaic installations between July 2012 and March 2013. This adds up to approximately 3.9 GW.

According to Federal Network Agency President's Jochen Homann the high number of new PV installations is a continuing trend. "In March, 290 MW were installed. The remuneration of electricity from PV plant is measured by a statutory corridor of new installations. This was exceeded again, though not as much as previous assessments," he added.