Germany's PV installs in April 2015 fall 40% y/y

Germany’s solar photovoltaic (PV) power capacity grew by 97.68 MWp in April 2015, which represents a 40% year-on-year fall and a 0.5% month-on-month improvement.

Almost all of the systems installed in April were smaller than 1 MW in capacity, data by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) shows. Germany has a cumulative PV capacity of over 38.3 GW, while the utility-scale total is just about 3.6 GW, so the country’s solar market is definitely dominated by small installations.

In the first four months of 2015, the total PV capacity additions amounted to 416.5 MWp, which compares to 622.7 MWp a year ago.

Overall, installation figures are dropping in Germany, with the 2014 total falling to 1,899 MWp from 3,309 MWp in 2013, according to a recently report by EurObserv'ER. This year, the country held the pilot auction for solar power purchase contracts. It resulted in 25 winning bids with a total capacity of 156.97 MW at an average power sale rate of EUR 0.0917 (USD 0.10) per kWh.

In 2015 the Bundesnetzagetur will be holding tenders for 500 MW of solar PV capacity in total, followed by 400 MW in 2016 and a further 300 MW in 2017.

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