According to the new legislative proposal of the Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche, nine out of ten of the current PV systems would not have received a feed-in tariff. This is the result of an analysis by Aroundhome, the independent brokerage platform of specialist companies for house projects (www.aroundhome.de). For the study, a total of more than five million units were analyzed from the market master data register and all PV systems with less than 25 kilowatts of installed capacity were extracted. The basic stock of PV systems of natural persons in German cities with at least 50,000 inhabitants was examined.
Small PV systems are gathering in the capital
In Berlin, existing PV systems most often did not receive a feed-in tariff: only 0.5 percent of the systems are above the 25 kW limit. A similar picture can be seen in Dresden, Bonn and Wolfenbüttel, where only around 0.6 percent of the turbines each deliver the new potential minimum output. In Jena, Sankt Augustin and Leipzig, this proportion is around 0.8 percent. This is followed by several cities with just under 0.9 percent. Among them are Duisburg, Potsdam and Munich. At the other end of the list are smaller cities: In Ravensburg, 7.2 percent of existing plants would still benefit from a feed-in tariff under both the previous regulation and the current proposal. In Ahlen it would be 6.6 percent and in Dorsten 6.4 percent.
City-states most affected
In addition to Berlin, the two city states of Hamburg (1.1 percent) and Bremen (1.4 percent) also have only a very low proportion of PV systems with at least 25 kW of installed capacity. They are followed by Saxony and Saarland in fourth and fifth place with shares of 2.1 and 2.2 percent. In contrast, the proportion is significantly higher in Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein, where 7.8 and 6.6 percent of the plants respectively received a feed-in tariff. In Lower Saxony, the figure would be around six percent. Nationwide, this results in an average of only about 3.5 percent of the systems examined.
This is what it looks like in the home of politicians
A look at the home and constituency regions of top German politicians shows how strongly their own electorate would be affected by the planned regulation. In Potsdam, Katherina Reiche’s constituency, more than 99 percent of PV systems would not have been taken into account under the new regulation – making the city one of the most affected regions. The situation is similar in Philipp Amthor’s home region: In Greifswald, only 3.2 percent of PV systems provide the required power. In the constituency of Chancellor Friedrich Merz in North Rhine-Westphalia, more than 95 percent of the plants do not reach the limit value.
“According to the current proposal, the planned cancellation of the feed-in tariff is only planned for newly installed systems. However, the analysis shows that systems over 25 kilowatts hardly play a role for private owners. Future operators will thus potentially have to forego several hundred euros in revenue per year. Direct marketing is economically attractive as an alternative, but cannot currently be used nationwide due to the lack of smart meters and the high bureaucratic effort. Too many grid operators and different requirements make them unattractive for small plants,” says Jannis Mischke, expert for “energy-efficient living” at Aroundhome. “PV systems are not a political instrument, but remain the most effective way to become independent of fluctuating energy prices, with or without feed-in tariffs. The investment pays off in the long term with direct savings, is climate-friendly and significantly increases the value of one’s own property.”
