Germany’s photovoltaic strategy targets 215 GW solar to 2030

Among the goals, 11 GW per year from 2026 of solar ground plants

(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – “Solar energy is one of the cheapest energy sources ever and is one of the most important for the electricity generation of the future“. With these words the German Minister for Economy and Climate Protection, Robert Habeck, presented on 5 May the new Germany’s photovoltaic strategy.

The plan, a 45-page document, outlines a series of measures to accelerate national solar expansion. The interventions fall into 11 fields of action and range from energy policies to facilitate installations to training skilled workers for the sector.

“By 2030, the share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption should be 80%,” said Habeck. “With an installed capacity of 215 GW by 2030, photovoltaics should make an important contribution [to the target]. This shows that we have a lot of work ahead of us. But we can already see how the construction of new capacity is picking up. Last year it was over 7 GW. For this year we have a provisional target of 9 GW”.

In recent months, Berlin has launched a number of instruments to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy, including increasing volumes of tenders, adjusting rates of return and removing regulatory obstacles. The new photovoltaic strategy of Germany should dissolve the remaining knots.

Germany’s photovoltaic strategy: 11 Fields of Action

• Ground PV: the country intends to install 11 GW a year from 2026 of solar plants on land, focusing, among other things, on disadvantaged areas, industrial and commercial areas, on the strengthening of special systems such as floating offshore and agrivoltaic, on a greater use of fv on highways and railway lines.
• Photovoltaics on the roof: Germany’s solar strategy will support the solarization of commercial buildings, but will also include improvements and simplifications in the area of small domestic installations. Also in this case the goal is a growth of 11 GW per year from 2026.
  Widespread virtual self-consumption: the German government is preparing to introduce a new model to support renewable energy communities by cutting red tape for condominium energy sharing.
• Photovoltaic balcony: the goal is to make small plug-in photovoltaic systems easily usable. The strategy is to simplify the communication obligations, to insert solar connectors between the privileged structural changes of the law on ownership and lease, to allow the Schuko socket as “electrical socket device” and increase the power threshold to 600 W.
• Network connections: the Government intends to speed up and greatly simplify the network connections of both ground-mounted and roof-mounted systems.
  Acceptance: The participation of communities and municipalities will be strengthened.
• Tax law: Barriers to trade and inheritance taxes will be removed.
• Industry: Berlin will increase industrial production capacity across the entire value chain in Germany and Europe, so that the growing demand for photovoltaics can be largely met by domestic factories.
• Skilled workers: The number of skilled workers for the production, design, installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems will be increased, increasing the number of training opportunities and advanced courses.
• Technological development: The Government intends to promote technological development throughout the entire value chain, including within the next 8 July energy research programme.
• European Framework: “We want to drive forward a faster expansion of photovoltaics at European level, for example with the EU strategy for solar energy and as part of the Fit for 55 package.