More and more German companies and private households are using solar energy to generate electricity. But whether Europe’s solar industry will benefit from the boom is questionable. The industry is demanding help from politicians.
The number of photovoltaic systems installed on Germany’s roofs rose by 16 percent in March of this year compared to the same month last year. According to the Federal Statistical Office, there are now a total of 2.6 million systems.
According to the information, the total output of the solar systems increased by more than a fifth compared to March 2022 to around 70,600 megawatts. The statistical office records all systems that feed into the public supply networks and have an electricity meter. So-called balcony power plants are therefore usually excluded from these statistics.
Solar power is becoming increasingly important
Through the operation of photovoltaic systems, a good 54.3 million megawatt hours of electricity were fed into the grid in Germany last year. This corresponds to an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year. In 2021, the grid feed-in was still around 45.3 million megawatt hours.
“The share of photovoltaics in power generation as a whole has also increased,” according to the statistics office. In 2022, eleven percent of the electricity fed into the grid in Germany came from photovoltaics – a new record. In 2021, photovoltaics accounted for nine percent of total electricity generation.
The previous record month for solar power in Germany was June 2022: With almost 7.7 million megawatt hours, a fifth of the electricity fed in that month was generated with the help of photovoltaic systems, the Federal Office determined.
Solar industry needs skilled workers
The Federal Association of the Solar Industry (BSW) believes it is possible to expand the solar share of energy consumption to 30 percent within ten years. In the past four years, private property owners have quadrupled the installed solar power output. There is potential above all on commercial roofs.
According to estimates by the solar industry, around a hundred thousand additional workers will be needed for the expansion of solar energy in Germany planned by the federal government. According to BSW, the industry employed around 65,000 people at the end of 2022. “We will have to get to around 165,000,” said BSW CEO Carsten Körnig.
The calculation is based on the federal government’s expansion target: the annual increase in photovoltaic output is to increase to 26 gigawatts by 2026, which would be more than three times as much as in 2022. According to Körnig, solar systems with an output of 7.4 gigawatts were installed last year According to BSW, this year it will probably be between nine and eleven gigawatts.
Who will benefit from the boom?
However, according to experts in Europe’s solar industry, the conditions are not ideal for profiting from this boom. The Chinese manufacturers in particular are currently dominating the market. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems estimates the European share of global production at one percent and the Chinese at 75 percent.
And China produces much cheaper: The production costs of solar modules are given in cents per watt of electrical output. According to information from the industry, the Chinese solar industry is estimated at 17 to 18 US cents per watt. The Chinese goal for 2025 is 15 cents, as the French entrepreneur and solar expert Gaetan Masson recently reported at the Intersolar trade fair in Munich.
According to a rough formula, the European cost is about twice as high, according to an expert. “We are much more expensive than the Chinese,” said Masson, who laments a lack of competitiveness.
“double boom” demanded
And the US is offering solar companies major tax breaks as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, thereby attracting European companies with subsidies, report industry representatives. “If nothing is done to protect European module manufacturers, no one will invest here,” summed up Gunter Erfurt at Intersolar. He is CEO of the module manufacturer Meyer Burger. Compared to non-European competitors, the domestic industry is in the situation of a “Trabi with a broken engine”.
“If we want to keep up in Europe, we now need an energy and industrial policy double hit,” demands BSW boss Körnig. Without an industrial electricity price, a renaissance of the solar industry in Europe will hardly succeed. In Körnig’s opinion, however, cheaper electricity alone would not be enough, hence the plea for a “double boom” with simultaneous industrial-political help for the solar industry.