This article originally appeared on Lenz Blog (minor changes below).
Germany solar panels & flag via Shutterstock
Zachary Shahan already reported that Germany will start a subsidy program for batteries used with small solar power from May 1st on.
Now there has been an official news release from the German government on the matter. People will be able to get low-cost financing from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the government-owned development bank. And they will get a subsidy of 30% of the battery costs. Solar PV systems up to 30 kW qualify for the program. This is for the rooftop market.
I recall that I have discussed this on March 3. As already explained, this program was supposed to start in January, and with twice the volume it now has (€50 million instead of the €25 million now available). And it was one promise the CDU/FDP government made in negotiations on a package reducing solar feed-in tariffs last year. That promise has been broken until now, and the program starting now is a very tiny small minimal effort.
€25 million is about €0.30 per capita for Germany. This stuff is important to get the transition to 100% renewable done faster, saving the World from global meltdown and annoying the enemies of Germany rooting for our failure. The level of investment here is completely inadequate.
Germany already has time slots where demand is not enough to cover the supply of renewable energy. Storing some of the supply makes more sense to me than shutting down perfectly low-carbon energy sources. Of course, the majority of storage will come from power-to-gas in the future. But that doesn’t mean batteries don’t have a place in the system as well. They sure do.
That said, having a very tiny small minimal program in place is better than nothing. So I guess this is good news in a way.
But basically we need a change of government in the coming elections. With the CDU/FDP government in charge right now, the transition to renewable will be much slower and much more expensive than with the SPD and the Greens.
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