Germany has added 81 MW of new solar PV capacity in October, bringing total installed solar PV capacity registered for funding to 39.484 GW, the latest monthly data from the federal grid regulator BNetzA shows. Annual solar growth is set to plunge for a third year in a row to its lowest level since 2007 with only 1.3 GW added so far this year. Last year, Germany added 1.9 GW of solar capacity, already falling below the annual target range of 2.4 GW to 2.6 GW. Additions above this range would automatically trigger further subsidy cuts.
German solar grew at an annual rate of more than 7 GW for three years between 2010-2012 as the cost of solar equipment dropped rapidly.
Germany is also moving towards auctions for larger solar projects as part of a reform of its renewable energy law in order to reduce overall costs.
In the first two pilot tenders earlier this year, Germany awarded 317 MW of ground-based PV projects with the price in the second round falling to Eur84.90/MWh.
In order to drive down costs further and integrate solar PV better into the electricity market, the government has approved plans to carry out tenders for ground-based large-scale solar PV installation with a combined 1.2 GW for the 2015-17 period.
The deadline for the third round of tenders is December 1, BNetzA said. From 2017, some 500 MW of large-scale PV projects will be tendered for funding each year with rooftop-based projects below 1 MW exempt from this process, a draft document for the 2016 reform of the renewable energy law (EEG) shows.
