From January to March, the photovoltaic (PV) group increased its sales by 60 percent compared to the previous year. Incoming orders even increased by more than 140 percent. “You rub your eyes a bit,” Solarwatt boss Dietmar Neuhaus rejoices. One was optimistic, “but we did not expect such a result”. And the medium-sized company from Saxony is not the only one.
No matter who you ask in the solar industry, you will hear the same everywhere. The first quarter of 2020 exceeded all expectations. “We expected demand to decline due to the Corona measures, but the opposite is the case,” reports Tobias Schütt, head of the solar company DZ-4 in Hamburg. After initial uncertainty among customers, the demand was higher than ever, “it is bombastic”.
20 years after the introduction of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), there are more than 1.8 million photovoltaic systems on Germany’s meadows, fields and roofs, which make up eight percent of Germany’s electricity supply.
The formerly most expensive of renewable energies is already cheaper in some countries around the world than a new coal or gas power plant. A kilowatt hour of solar electricity only costs between four and five cents to produce, and even less in some particularly sunny regions. In addition, there is an increased wholesale price and a significantly more expensive CO2 price at European level.
“Corona will leave a small dent in the solar industry, if at all,” says Carsten Körnig, Chairman of the Federal Association of the Solar Industry (BSW). He is not worried about the virus, but something completely different.
State funding is running out
In the summer, the solar industry is expected to exceed the magic limit of 52 gigawatts installed in Germany. Then, according to the EEG, government subsidies for small and medium-sized plants should end. The more that is built, the faster the so-called solar cover would be reached. For many, an impending disaster. Grainy sees thousands of jobs at risk.
Because although large-scale solar projects are becoming increasingly profitable, this does not apply to rooftop systems. There, experts believe that it will still take a few years before the technology pays off without the corresponding self-consumption.
According to a current survey commissioned by the BSW, the idea of benefiting from the state-guaranteed feed-in tariff still plays an important to very important role in 60 to 70 percent of home owners interested in PV.
“But it’s not just about the funding itself, it’s more about the question of how and with what I plan,” emphasizes Michael Bönisch, authorized officer of the module producer Heckert Solar. The lack of planning security unsettles many of his customers. “The horror scenario Deckel is worse for us than Corona.”
The federal government had already announced several times that it would lift the solar cover – but nothing has happened so far.
There is great uncertainty in the industry. The trauma of 2012 is too deep. At that time, the lavish subsidies for solar systems in Germany were massively reduced. As a result, there was a tough price war on the market, from which Chinese companies particularly benefited. German companies could not manufacture their products more cheaply than the competition from Asia. The market collapsed. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost.
The mass extinction of solar companies began in the home country of photovoltaics. Today there are only a few, mostly specialized module manufacturers like Heckert Solar from Chemnitz or inverter manufacturers like SMA Solar from Kassel who have survived the clear cut.
