In the first seven months of the year alone, more solar power was installed in Germany than in 2022. Bavaria is the leader. The development of private homes was supported.
Power generation from sunlight continues to develop strongly in Germany. In the first seven months of the year, around 593,000 new solar systems with a total output of a good 7,900 megawatts were connected to the grid, the International Economic Forum for Regenerative Energies (IWR) reported today in Münster. The capacity installed in Germany in 2023 is already after seven months above the capacity of 7460 megawatts put into operation for the whole of 2022. According to the IWR, 390,000 systems were newly installed in 2022.
“Energy transition in Germany reached the people”
Most of the new output was installed in Bavaria between January and the end of July, at around 1,980 megawatts. North Rhine-Westphalia (1,340 megawatts), Baden-Württemberg (1,050 megawatts), Lower Saxony (740 megawatts) and Brandenburg (610 megawatts) follow. The IWR relies on data from the Federal Network Agency. The seven-month figures are subject to change because the one-month reporting period for new installations has not yet expired.
The number of electricity-producing solar systems in Germany had risen to a total of around 3.3 million by the end of July, the IWR explained. The installed solar capacity is currently almost 75,500 megawatts. “The high solar growth clearly shows that the energy turnaround in Germany has reached the people and has become a participatory project,” explained IWR boss Norbert Allnoch. The federal government’s solar package decided this week will further accelerate this trend.
The traffic light coalition wants to remove bureaucratic hurdles and simplify the registration of private individuals’ systems. In addition, agricultural areas are to be opened up for the promotion of solar systems. However, the expansion of photovoltaics on these areas should be limited to 80 gigawatts by 2030. In the future, solar systems may also increasingly be built on surfaces that are already sealed, such as parking lots.
balcony power plants trending
According to the German Solar Industry Association, the increase in photovoltaics in the first half of the year was particularly strong among homeowners. The newly installed PV capacity in homes increased by 135 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In the first quarter alone, 159,000 photovoltaic systems for private homes were put into operation throughout Germany – an increase of 146 percent.
The association also expects strong PV demand in the second half of the year. The demand for solar systems in Germany could therefore grow in double digits this year for the seventh time in a row. “For the first time, more than ten gigawatts of PV capacity should be newly installed in 2023,” the association said on request.
The so-called balcony power plants also make a contribution to this. “There is a total boom that continues,” says the Federal Network Agency with a view to the number of registered devices. The Bonn authorities assume that there are currently around 288,000 plug-in solar devices on balconies or terraces in Germany. At the beginning of July there were still around 230,000. Of these alone, 137,000 started this year.