German Government Approves to Speed up Photovoltaic System Construction

According to reports, the German Federal Ministry of Economics has approved a series of measures to simplify the deployment of photovoltaic systems in order to achieve the country's goal of installing 215GW of photovoltaic systems by 2030.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the ministry had approved the draft "Solar Package 1" bill to ensure the installation of 22GW of photovoltaic systems per year by 2026 and remove barriers to deployment.

"It will be easier for German companies, municipalities, citizens and farmers to invest in photovoltaic systems," said Sven Giegold, State Secretary at the German Ministry of Economy.

The proposed legislative changes mainly simplify the installation process of plug-in photovoltaic systems, while covering all areas, including rooftop and ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, as well as tenant electricity and community energy supply.

The installation process for rooftop PV systems will be streamlined as the existing simplified grid-connection procedures will be extended to PV systems below 30kW. Access to direct sales of small PV systems will also be simplified, and requirements for PV systems below 25kW will also be relaxed.

For medium-sized commercial PV systems, a permit is only required if the grid-connected capacity reaches 270kW or the installed capacity exceeds 500kW.

A new model in the draft also facilitates the supply of building-installed photovoltaic systems, extending to residential tenants or commercial customers. Existing EEG subsidies for photovoltaic systems in buildings will also cover outdoor areas.

The output power of the plug-in photovoltaic system is limited to 2kW, and the output power of the photovoltaic inverter is limited to 800VA. They must run on the user side of the end consumer.

The previous EEG amendment introduced new repowering regulations for ground-mounted PV systems, which will now be extended to rooftop PV systems, allowing replacement of original PV modules with more powerful PV modules while maintaining the original feed-in tariff.

The key to ground-mounted PV systems is to extend coverage, allowing construction on agricultural land in impoverished areas. Extensive agricultural PV systems that meet the expansion criteria will receive bonuses, while biodiversity PV parks will be authorized to receive additional funding through a separate regulation.

A dedicated photovoltaic subsection in Germany is planned for ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, including agricultural photovoltaic systems, floating photovoltaic systems and parking photovoltaic systems, up to 3GW per year.

After being approved by the German cabinet, the "Solar Package 1" proposal will be submitted to the German Bundestag for consideration. At the same time, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs is developing the "Solar Package 2" bill to implement the additional measures of the "Photovoltaic Strategy" jointly formulated by the two parties.