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German PV Market
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Information updated as of August, 2007
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The "Feed-in Law" in Germany permits customers to receive preferential tariffs for solar generated electricity depending on the nature and size of the installation. Under the new tariff structure introduced in 2004, the base level of compensation for ground-mounted systems can be up to 45.7 euro cents/kWh. PV installations on buildings receive higher rates of up to 57.4 euro cents/kWh.
The Feed-in Law requires that the tariff paid for solar electricity be reduced by 5% per year, and by 6.5% per annum for ground-mounted systems.
The Feed-in Law fixes tariffs for approved renewable energy projects for a 20-year period from the plant commissioning and will apply incremental price cuts. Tariffs were initially set at 48.1 cents per kilowatt hour for solar energy, 8.6 cents per kWh for wind, from 9.6 to 8.2 cents per kWh for biomass, 8.4 to 6.7 cents per kWh for geothermal and 7.2 to 6.3 cents per kWh for hydropower, waste and sewage gas.
Bavaria tops the list of state markets in Germany in 2006.
Some 20,000 solar electricity systems yielding an output of about 145 Megawatts (MW) were installed in 2003, almost twice the volume installed in the previous year. With these additions, the total solar electricity capacity in Germany is now estimated at over 400 Megawatts.
Germany saw slow growth in 2006, but still remains by far the largest PV market in the world. 968 Megawatts of PV were installed in Germany in 2006.
The German solar market generated total revenues of over 800 million euros in 2003.
The German PV industry generates over 10,000 jobs in production, distribution and installation.
Over 90% of solar PV installations are in grid-tied applications in Germany. The balance is off-grid (or stand alone) systems.
PV Installations by Year in Germany (in Megawatts)

 
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Total
0.60
1.00
3.10
3.5
4.0
5.9
10.6
14.5
12.6
16.5
44.0
80.0
83.0
145.0

The German Government provided, through the KfW Bank, loans totaling 1.7 billion euros for the procurement of PV systems under the 100,000 Roofs Program, which terminated at the end of 2003. Loans are still available, but under slightly less advantageous conditions.
The world's largest PV installation is in Germany, at Hemau in Bavaria. It consists of 32,740 solar modules with a combined peak power output of 4 Megawatts.
Some German states have subsidy programs for PV installations that can be used in combination with the national Feed-in Law.
Click here to go to Solar Energy companies and links by topic in Germany on this site.
The European Photovoltaic Industries Association (EPIA) represents the PV industry in Europe. Its latest views and European PV Road Map may be found at this link.
Click here to go to the German section of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES). Web site is in the German language and covers both solar photovoltaics and solar thermal. Their e-mail address is info@dgs-solar.org.
German Energy and Electricity Industry
German domestic energy sources in 1998 were: Coal: 46%, Nuclear power: 31%, Natural Gas: 14%, Renewable Energy: 6% and Oil: 3%. In consumption terms, though, oil accounted for 44%, or 2.8 million barrels per day.
Of the renewable energy segment, wind energy accounts for about 58%, Hydropower 30%, Biomass 12%, and solar and other source for the balance.
Six electricity generation companies account for about 80% of total generation. Mergers could reduce this to three over the near term. The Utility market has around 70 regional Utilities and 900 municipal Utilities.
1999 Electricity consumption by Country in Billion kilowatt hours                  Source: US DOE EIA

Canada
497.5
South Africa
172.4
Mexico
170.8
Russia
728.0
USA
3235.9
Australia
178.3
Brazil
353.7
China
1084.1
France
398.8
India
424.0
Germany
495.2
South Korea
232.8
United Kingdom
333.0
Japan
947.0
By 2010, the European Union expects Renewable Energy sources to contribute 22% of all power production.
Selected Energy Statistics by Country (1998)                          Source: International Energy Agency

 
Population
GDP (US $)
Electricity consumption
kWhr per capita
CO2 per capita
CO2 per unit of GDP
Brazil
165.87
576.41
1850.78
1.78
0.51
Canada
30.30
666.72
16348.68
15.75
0.72
China
1238.60
805.26
871.91
2.30
3.54
France
58.85
1349.20
7175.10
6.38
0.28
Germany
82.02
1883.53
6481.51
10.45
0.46
India
979.67
499.31
415.75
0.93
1.82
Japan
126.49
3303.58
8008.33
8.92
0.34
United Kingdom
59.24
1123.21
5800.11
9.28
0.49
United States
269.09
7043.64
13388.11
20.10
0.77
Gross Domestic Product (2000)

 
GDP 2000
(in US Dollars, Billion)
United States
$ 9,963*
Japan
$ 4,614
Germany
$ 1,867
United Kingdom
$ 1,415
France
$ 1,281
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