Funding rates for photovoltaic installations will not be reduced
Peter Franke: "The increase in photovoltaic installations is once again markedly below the capacity expansion targets
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Date of issue 2015.09.30
The Bundesnetzagentur has announced today that the feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic installations will not be reduced during the period from 1 October 2015 to 1 December 2015.
"The deployment figures for the past 12 months of about 1,437 megawatts are below the statutorily set deployment corridor of 2,400 to 2,600 megawatts. As a result, for the first time ever the tariffs are levelling off,
" says Peter Franke, Vice President of the Bundesnetzagentur.
According to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the support level (reference value) for photovoltaic installations must be adjusted monthly. This is essentially determined by the previous 12 months' capacity expansion. Should the deployment rate fluctuate within the limit of the defined corridor, a reduction in the reference values of a half percentage point in each case per month is provided for. This decrease is even steeper if the expansion exceeds the upper limit of the deployment corridor. However, when new capacity undercuts the lower limit of the corridor the reference values do not fall as much, remain the same or even rise.
In the latest support level calculations the deployment figures for the period September 2014 to August 2015 were taken into account. These figures include all notifications during this period and any subsequent notifications.
The number of late notifications of photovoltaic installations had increased considerably at the start of the year but has fallen noticeably in the past three months. Mr Franke added, "In this connection it must be pointed out that notification delays may lead to significant financial penalties for the operators of the installations involved; in their own interests, all installation operators should check whether they have registered their installations with the photovoltaic registration portal and have received an ASO number from the Bundesnetzagentur."
The notifications recorded in the RES installations register provided the following data: For the period August 2014 to August 2015 net onshore wind energy capacity was 3,666 MW. Some 3,943 MW of newly-installed onshore wind capacity was commissioned and 277 MW decommissioned. In the same period biomass plants offering a total output of 71 MW were newly commissioned. A ceiling cap totalling 1,350 MW of additionally installed power has been allowed for as a flexibility bonus for existing biomass plants. Up to the end of May 2015 the capacity expansion credited to this was about 60 MW.
Further information on the Renewable Energy Sources Act reference values can be found on the Bundesnetzagentur's website at www.bundesnetzagentur.de.