Originally published on Sustainnovate.
By Henry Lindon
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy has, as was expected, gone ahead and extended the country’s rebate program for solar + energy storage systems, according to recent reports.
The rebate re-launch is set for March 1st — following the expiration at the end of 2015 — and is topped off with a budget of €30 million. The rebate is now set to last until the end of 2018.
The rules for the rebate have changed somewhat, but will still allow for the provision of discounted credit for homeowners looking to add an energy storage system to a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, through the national development bank KfW.
The changes to the program were made to reflect the changing conditions of the market, falling costs most prominently. A desire to promote “higher standards” for energy storage systems played a part as well though.
These changes also allow system owners to feed less of their peak power into the grid than before — 50%, rather than 60% as before.
Despite the overall support for the extension, there’s been a fair amount of criticism that the decision took too long.
“The Ministry of Economy could have saved manufacturers and users, the uncertainty of the past few months if it had submitted the new regulations for battery storage right at the beginning, as we Greens have always called for,” stated the German Greens rep Julia Verlinden. “The back-and-forth regarding the storage program is representative of the hand break that Sigmar Gabriel wants to apply to decentralized technologies aimed at transforming the energy system, placing it back into citizens’ hands. It was high time that the Minister gave the green light to the further promotion of PV battery storage. ”
Image via sonnenBatterie
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