Photovoltaik-Strategie

© BMWK/Dominik Butzmann

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck presented a comprehensive PV Strategy on the occasion of the second PV Summit today. The aim is to considerably speed up the expansion of solar energy in Germany. To this end, the strategy lists measures in eleven fields of action ranging from energy-policy measures to the issues of securing skilled labour, industrial value creation in Europe, and technology development. The summit follows on from a first PV Summit in March 2023. Consultations on the PV Strategy were launched in March. More than 600 comments were received.

Federal Minister Habeck said: "Photovoltaic energy is considered one of the cheapest energy sources and is one of the most important future sources of electricity generation. By 2030, the proportion of gross electricity consumption covered by renewable energy is to be increased to 80%. With an installed capacity of 215 gigawatts by 2030, photovoltaics makes an important contribution. This shows that we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we can also see that the expansion is picking up speed. Last year, the increase amounted to more than 7 gigawatts. The interim target for the current year is 9 gigawatts. There are good prospects for us to attain this interim target: in the first quarter of 2023, some 2.7 gigawatts of capacity was already newly installed.

"The Strategy presented today aims to considerably further speed up the expansion as we intend to remove all barriers which have so far prevented more speed."

In the last few months, the Federal Government has already launched numerous measures to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy. These include an increase in the volumes up for auction, an adjustment of the remuneration rates, and the removal of regulatory barriers. The PV Strategy now has a focus on the remaining impediments.

Fields of action of the PV Strategy:

  • Ground-mounted installations: We need to increase the capacity by 11 GW annually from 2026. For this purpose, we need to provide enough sites and accelerate planning and authorisation procedures. Furthermore, use must be made of innovative concepts, including agrivoltaics, to prevent competition for space.
  • Roof-top installations: The PV Strategy aims to boost large-scale PV installations in the field of commercial buildings. The Strategy also includes improvements and simplifications in the field of small PV installations. The target is an expansion of 11 GW annually from 2026.
  • Landlord-to-tenant electricity supply and joint supply for buildings: There is scope to make much more use of the roofs of multi-family homes for PV installations. We will therefore launch a new model for the joint supply of PV for residential buildings so that all owners and tenants of buildings can benefit from the solar power generated from PV installations. In addition, we will improve the existing landlord-to-tenant electricity model.
  • Balcony PV installations: Our aim is that everyone can easily make use of balcony PV installations. To this end, we intend to cut red tape in order to quickly enable operators to connect their installations to the power grid.
  • Grid connections: We want to considerably accelerate and simplify grid connections for both ground-mounted and roof-top installations. This includes the simplification of the certification procedure for large-scale roof-top installations.
  • Public acceptance: We want to strengthen participation. The relevant issues include the financial participation of municipalities and simplified rules for citizens’ energy.
  • Tax law: The reduction of impediments under tax law is important for the ramp-up of PV. The Economic Affairs Ministry is advocating further improvements for photovoltaics also in the fields of trade tax and inheritance tax.
  • Industry: We want to build industrial production capacities along the entire value chain in Germany and in Europe so that growing demand can be met primarily by domestic generation.
  • Skilled labour: We want to raise the number of skilled workers for the production, planning, installation and maintenance of PV systems by making available more initial and further vocational training courses.
  • Technology development: We want to advance technology development along the entire value chain, also in the context of the 8th Energy Research Programme.
  • European level: EU processes and requirements are increasingly impacting the legal framework for the energy sector. We therefore also want to advance the faster expansion of PV installations at European level, e.g. in the context of the EU solar energy strategy and the Fit for 55 package.

The implementation of the Strategy will begin immediately after its publication. Several measures are to be discussed by the cabinet in the "Solar Package I" before the summer break. Further measures, some of which require more preparatory work, are to follow in a "Solar Package II". The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action continues to welcome proposals during the legislative work: the respective email address (pv-strategie@bmwk.bund.de) therefore remains active.
The PV Strategy (in German) can be found here.