97 percent of solar entrepreneurs warn of a decline in demand for solar roofs

Published on: September 22, 2020 / Update from: September 26, 2020 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier does not seem to be interested in the French government's negative experiences with solar roof auctions.

BSW industry survey attests poor grades to the amendment to the EEG law (Renewable Energy Sources Act): 97 percent of the over 1,000 participating entrepreneurs expect a decline in the market for photovoltaic solar roofs - the Federal Ministry of Economics' draft law is a brake instead of an inspiration and urgently needs to be improved.

97 percent of solar companies warn of a decline in demand for solar roofs if the draft bill for the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) presented by Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier last week is implemented unchanged. This emerges from a current industry survey. In just three days, over 1,000 solar companies took part in the German Solar Industry Association. V. (BSW) initiated evaluation of the draft law. The amendment to the law that will be on the agenda of the Federal Cabinet tomorrow, Wednesday, provides for numerous, sometimes serious, changes to the funding conditions for photovoltaics. The solar industry is alarmed and is calling on politicians to make improvements to numerous points in the legal text.

According to the wishes of the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi), larger solar roofs should only receive market premiums in the future if they have previously successfully taken part in a tender and no longer use solar power themselves, but feed it entirely into the power grid. “Four out of five solar entrepreneurs expect that the demand for solar roofs will actually collapse sharply if the conditions deteriorate like this,” explains Carsten Körnig, Managing Director at BSW, referring to the survey results.

Körnig also refers to the French government's very negative experiences with solar roof auctions. Just last week, the French government announced that it no longer wanted to make participation in tenders a requirement for funding in our neighboring country.

Smart meters are disproportionate and too expensive for small systems

The solar industry also urgently warns against the introduction of further requirements for measurement and regulation, as proposed by the BMWi in the future, even for the smallest amounts of solar power. 85 percent of the survey participants expect a negative impact on photovoltaic demand if solar power systems with an output of 1 kilowatt peak or more have to install smart meters in the future. “It is incomprehensible why even a handful of solar modules on homes should be equipped with expensive measurement systems in the future. This neither increases network stability nor system efficiency and is completely disproportionate,” said Körnig. The BSW is calling on the federal government to use standard load profiles for prosumers instead and to continue to use the proven option for reducing active power for larger solar power systems. This successfully avoids generation peaks and makes solar power production sufficiently predictable for network operators and energy suppliers.

Prosumer refers to consumers who are also producers.

In order to make the electricity system more flexible in line with needs, energy experts agree that storage capacities will need to be multiplied in the coming years. The current draft law “slows things down here too, instead of inspiring them,” is the criticism of the BSW, which also represents the interests of the storage industry. Three quarters of solar entrepreneurs assume that operators of older photovoltaic roofs will switch off their solar power systems if they have to pay a proportionate EEG levy for the solar power they use themselves in the future. A switch to proportional self-consumption of solar power by retrofitting battery storage to supply electric cars and heat pumps would become unattractive for them under these circumstances.

current statement the BSW calls on the federal government to remove numerous other market barriers and to triple the expansion of photovoltaics compared to the current government plans.

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