The solar industry and the German government want to work more closely together on the expansion of photovoltaics in order to achieve the targeted expansion targets. At the second photovoltaic summit on Friday in Berlin, there was broad agreement that the construction and use of the plants would have to be significantly accelerated in order to achieve the so-called renewables targets. To this end, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) has presented a new solar strategy that includes eleven fields of action, including facilitation of the installation of ground-mounted and rooftop systems.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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The background to these efforts is the International Energy Agency's (IEA) finding that industrialised countries must make their electricity generation greenhouse gas-neutral by 2035 in order to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees. From this, the German government has derived the target of increasing the share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption from currently around 2030 to 50 percent by 80. In photovoltaics, a capacity of 215 gigawatts (GW) must be created by this time. In order to achieve this, the annual expansion must be more than tripled from around 7 GW last year to 22 GW in the future. Habeck said at the presentation of the strategy that the interim target for 2023 was 9 GW, and that 2.7 GW had already been installed in the first quarter. The paper, which is more than 40 pages long, is intended to ensure that "we significantly accelerate the expansion and release all the brakes that have so far prevented a higher pace of expansion".

Avoid competition for space

The chief executive of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW), Carsten Körnig, said after the second PV summit that Habeck's plans were ambitious, but quite well designed. There is "a lot of light and hardly any shadow", it is now a matter of forming concrete laws from it. As a first step, the minister wants to develop a "Solar Package I", which is to go to the cabinet before the summer break. Later, a "Solar Package II" will follow. The new strategy has taken on board suggestions from the professional public after a first solar summit in March; According to the ministry, more than 600 comments were received in total.

Habeck referred to the simplifications already achieved for the expansion, including the increase in tender volumes, the adjustment of remuneration rates and the removal of the first regulatory hurdles. Now they are "focusing on the remaining obstacles". This will facilitate planning and approval procedures in order to build open spaces with a capacity of 2026 GW every year from 11 onwards. It is important to avoid "land competition", for example through the use of agriculturally suitable solar farms (Agri-PV). The expansion target for rooftop systems from 2026 onwards is 11 GW per year. Among other things, the construction of larger roof systems on commercial buildings will be facilitated.

Strengthening PV production in Europe

The roofs of apartment buildings are also still used too rarely, so that tenant electricity and the communal building supply have to be promoted. The goal is the "on-site use of solar power for all parties in the house," it said. In addition, there is an intention to enable more balcony systems, for example through less bureaucracy and simpler connections. One bottleneck is the grid connections, which the strategy aims to accelerate, for example through simplified certification processes. In order to increase the acceptance of the technology and "participation" among the population, the rules for citizen energy are to be expanded and the municipalities to participate in revenues from solar parks. Habeck's house has also taken up the cause of dismantling tax hurdles for PV use, for example in trade and inheritance tax.

Another important goal is to strengthen PV production in Germany and Europe in order to meet demand from domestic sources; so far, most of the components come from China. To ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers for production, planning, installation and maintenance, there should be more training and further education opportunities. European cooperation must also be strengthened.