15 June 2011
Source: Reuters
Considerably less than 1,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity was installed in the world's biggest solar market during the so-called reference period laid out in Germany's Renewable Energy Act, people familiar with the figures told Reuters.
The sources said the reason for the low capacity of new installations was that people had brought their installations forward to log in higher tariffs, while some were also irritated by the political debate about the future of photovoltaic power.
Germany added a record of some 7 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic capacity in 2010 to a total of nearly 17 GW.
Under the law, the installed capacity for the three-month period will be multiplied by four to estimate the expected annual new installations -- anything above 3,500 MW in new installations would lead to further cuts of 3 percent from July, more than 4,500 MW another 3 percent and so on.
Now it appears that the 3,500 MW mark will not be reached, which would annul the July cut.
German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen had said earlier this month that he expected solar power capacity to rise by 4.8 GW in 2011, which would have led to an extra 6 percent cut in incentives from July.
Capacity figures for 2011 will be evaluated again later in the year to see whether predictions had been correct. If not, extra cuts can be introduced for January 2012.
Meanwhile politicians are gearing up for a reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) scheduled for 2012. The law, which guarantees investors above-market fees for solar power for 20 years, was implemented in 2000 and led to a boom in the industry.
On Wednesday, Reuters obtained a letter by two economy experts of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives in which they push to cap new installations at 1,000 MW per year.
The Green party criticized the suggestion, saying as a result of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, installation targets should be raised.
