Record number of sunshine hours in spring 2020 ensured high electricity feed-in from photovoltaics

Published on: July 17, 2020 / update from: August 17, 2020 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

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Sunshine hour record in spring 2020 – @shutterstock | Maradon 333

Solar power was a source of income for 2.9% of private households in 2018 - solar energy in new buildings: every tenth new residential building primarily used solar thermal energy in 2019 - heating water in a climate-friendly way: solar thermal energy as secondary energy provided warm water in every fourth new residential building in 2019

The weather records in Germany have never recorded as many hours of sunshine in the months of March, April and May as in spring 2020 - according to the German Weather Service, it was the sunniest spring since records began in 1951. The month of April in particular had around 294 hours of sunshine with plenty of sunshine and gave the share of photovoltaics in electricity feed-in in Germany top values ​​overall. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports, this was 17.2% in April 2020 and, together with wind power (24.2%), represented the largest part of the grid feed-in from renewable energy sources. In total, 55.6% of the total electricity volume was fed in from renewable energy sources.

Electricity feed-in from photovoltaics and wind power - Federal Statistical Office (Desatis), 2020

When sunlight is converted into electricity, it is called photovoltaics. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems calculated for 2019 that photovoltaics covered 8.2% of gross electricity consumption in Germany with an electricity generation of 46.5 terawatt hours, while renewable energies totaled 43%. In addition to professional photovoltaic operators, private households or individuals who operate photovoltaic systems together (so-called citizen solar systems) can also feed solar energy into the grid and benefit from it.

Solar power was a source of income for 2.9% of private households in 2018

In 2018, 2.9% of private households (around 1.2 million) in Germany had income from the sale of solar power. In 2013 it was 2.4% (927,000 households). The income of these private households from electricity sales averaged 243 euros per month in 2018 and therefore fell by 25.9% compared to 2013 with 328 euros per month. A possible reason for this decline is the decreasing feed-in tariff for newly installed photovoltaic systems according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).

Since the proportion of house and land owners increases as the number of people in the household increases, the proportion of households with income from the sale of solar power also increases as the household size increases. While in 2018 only just under 1% of single-person households had income of this type, it was already 3.5% of two-person households and 6.3% of four-person households.

The proportion of households that have income from the sale of solar power also increases as household net income increases: While 1.8% of households with a monthly net income of 2,600 to less than 3,600 euros had this type of income, the proportion was in households with a net income from 5,000 to less than 7,500 euros at 7.3%.

One in ten new residential buildings predominantly uses solar thermal energy as a heat source

If sunlight is not converted into electricity but into heat, this is known as solar thermal energy. In residential buildings, this can be used for heating or hot water preparation. In 2019, the proportion of newly completed residential buildings that convert solar energy into heat and use it primarily for heating and hot water preparation was 9.7%.

Solar thermal energy as a primary heat source – Federal Statistical Office (Desatis), 2020

An evaluation of the residential buildings completed last year by type of energy shows that solar thermal energy as the primary use of energy for heating living spaces is currently of minor importance (0.6%). Only 600 of 108,071 of the completed residential buildings use this renewable energy for heating. However, solar energy is more important in hot water preparation: in 9.2% of new residential buildings, solar thermal energy is used as the primary type of energy for heating water and is therefore third in terms of primary use (only environmental thermal energy and gas are used more often).

Solar thermal energy as the most important secondary energy source for hot water preparation

If more than one energy source is used in the building, solar thermal energy is usually used as additional (secondary) energy. With a share of 24.7%, it was the most important type of energy in secondary supply systems of new residential buildings in 2019. Compared to the previous year, the proportion decreased slightly (24.7% in 2019 compared to 25.7% in 2018).

The use of solar thermal energy as a secondary energy source in new residential buildings has weakened somewhat in recent years. Five years ago, almost 30% of new residential buildings used solar thermal energy as a secondary energy source for hot water.

Record sunshine hours in spring 2020 – @shutterstock | Maradon 333

Solar power was a source of income for 2.9% of private households in 2018 – Solar energy in new buildings: every tenth new home in 2019 primarily used solar thermal energy – heating water in a climate-friendly way: In 2019, solar thermal as secondary energy provided hot water in every fourth new residential building

Never before has the weather recording in Germany recorded as many hours of sunshine as in spring 2020 in the months of March, April and May - according to the German Weather Service, it was the sunniest spring since records began in 1951. With around 294 hours of sunshine, the month of April in particular had plenty of sunshine and brought peak values ​​for the proportion of electricity fed into the grid by photovoltaics in Germany. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), this share was 17.2% in April 2020 and, together with wind power (24.2%), accounted for the largest share of grid feed-in from renewable energy sources. In total, 55.6% of the total electricity volume was fed in from renewable energy sources.

Electricity feed-in through photovoltaics and wind power – Federal Statistical Office (Desatis), 2020

When the sunlight is converted into electricity, one speaks of photovoltaics. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems has calculated for the year 2019 that photovoltaics covered 8.2% of the gross electricity consumption in Germany with an electricity generation of 46.5 terawatt hours, the renewable energies in total came to 43%. In addition to professional photovoltaic operators, private households or even private individuals who operate photovoltaic systems on a community basis (so-called citizen solar systems) can also feed solar energy into the grid and benefit from it.

Solar power was a source of income for 2.9% of private households in 2018

In 2018, 2.9% of private households (around 1.2 million) in Germany had income from the sale of solar power. In 2013, the figure was 2.4% (927,000 households). The income of these private households from the sale of electricity in 2018 averaged 243 euros per month and thus fell by 25.9% compared to 2013, when the monthly income was 328 euros. One possible reason for this decline may be the falling feed-in tariffs for newly installed photovoltaic systems under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).

Since the ratio of house and land owners increases with the number of people in the household, the proportion of households with income from the sale of solar power also rises with increasing household size. Whereas in 2018 only just under 1% of one-person households had income of this kind, the figure for two-person households was already 3.5% and for four-person households 6.3%.

Even with rising net household income, the proportion of households that have income from the sale of solar electricity increases: While 1.8% of households with a monthly net income of EUR 2 600 to less than EUR 3 600 had this type of income, the share of households with a net income of EUR 5 000 to less than EUR 7 500 was 7.3%.

Every tenth new home uses mainly solar thermal energy as a heat source

If the sunlight is not converted into electricity but into heat, this is called solar thermal energy. In residential buildings, this can be used for heating or for hot water preparation. In 2019, the proportion of newly completed residential buildings that convert solar energy into heat and use it primarily for heating and hot water was 9.7%.

Solar thermal energy as primary heat source – Federal Statistical Office (Desatis), 2020

An analysis of the residential buildings completed last year by type of energy shows that solar thermal energy is currently of minor importance (0.6%) as the primary energy source for heating homes. Only 600 of 108,071 of the completed residential buildings use this renewable energy for heating. In contrast, solar energy is more important for heating water: in 9.2% of new residential buildings, solar thermal energy is used as the primary type of energy for heating water and is therefore in third place in terms of primary use (only environmental heating and gas are used more frequently).

Solar thermal energy as the most important secondary energy source for hot water preparation

If more than one energy source is used in a building, solar thermal energy is usually used as a further (secondary) energy source. With a share of 24.7%, it was the most important type of energy in secondary supply systems of residential new buildings in 2019. Compared to the previous year, the share was slightly lower (24.7% in 2019 compared to 25.7% in 2018).

The use of solar thermal energy as a secondary energy source in new residential buildings has weakened somewhat in recent years. Five years ago, solar thermal energy was used as a secondary energy source for hot water in almost 30% of residential new buildings.