Comments on: Germany Installed a Record 7.5 GW of Solar Power in 2011

By: Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Karl-Friedrich Lenz — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:22:00 +0000

That would be 11 percent from wind and solar and 20 percent from all renewable sources.

Cost for the surcharges were about 14.15% of consumer price in March 2011, and the surcharge has not changed much since then.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:09:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay.

That’s what I figured. Thanks. Great to have some German readers to give us an info boost

By: Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Karl-Friedrich Lenz — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:05:00 +0000

The web address above does not work, since the Federal Network Agency in their infinite wisdom chose exactly this timing to change all their links in a full rebuild of their website, without providing any redirects.

Please use “1042” at the last part of the address given above instead of “1041”. Sorry for the inconvenience.

By: Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Karl-Friedrich Lenz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:05:00 +0000

Thank you for including my comment in the post above.

There is no English press release at the moment. I will post the link to the German press release in another comment. When I tried to do that yesterday, the comment got into moderation. And the link I posted yesterday is wrong now, since Federal Network Agency changed all their links yesterday.

By: Germany Installed a Record 7.5 GW of Solar Power in 2011 | evolve+sustain | news on global & societal sustainability

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:04:36 +0000

[…] full article at CleanTechnica Tags: Energy + Electricity […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:53:00 +0000

No, the law specifies the amount of FiT reduction based on the amount of new capacity. The desired rate is 2.5–3.5 GW/year, to keep the cost of the FiTs under control.
http://www.germanenergyblog.de/?p=8341

Currently, about 30% of the cost of Germany’s electricity goes for the 10% it gets from wind and solar, so it’ll be a while before they don’t need subsidies.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Rather than the amount of solar installed driving down the FiT, it’s more likely that the rapidly falling installed solar price is allowing the FiT to be reduced.

If it costs less to install a system then the government need sweeten the deal a bit less. Soon we should be at a point where no subsidy is needed, solar will be cheap enough to stand on its own.

That’s a successful subsidy program.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Hmm, thanks for that. I’ve added this comment to the top of the post. I’m not seeing an English press release from the FNA on its site. Is that from a German press release? Could you share the link for the press release?

Thank You!

By: Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Karl-Friedrich Lenz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:03:00 +0000

December saw over 3 GW of added capacity, not 2 as stated above.

A couple of other info from the official press release at the Federal Network Agency, with some comment added:

The strongest month was December, with 3.0 GW added alone in that month. That very likely will lead to further massive reductions in the feed-in tariff at the maximum possible under current law, which would be another 15% from July 2012 on and on top of that another 24% from January 2013 on. The record of the last three months of 2011 will be taken into account for both decisions.

If this kind of pace is kept up, then the level of generation capacity projected to be reached in 2022 will be achieved seven years earlier, in 2015. Excellent news for the climate, as well as for further price reductions by even more mass production.

They also expect the next mini boom in June of this year, from people who want to secure the present levels before they go down again in July.