[SMM Analysis] Germany's newly installed photovoltaic capacity to hit a new high

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) stated that Germany’s newly installed photovoltaic capacity in February was 1.07GW, up 43.4% from February 2023. The installed capacity in January 2024 was 1.42 GW. From January to February 2024, the cumulative new photovoltaic installed capacity was 2.49GW, compared with approximately 1.62GW in the same period last year. As of the end of February, the country's cumulative installed photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 84.88 GW.

Germany's new photovoltaic installed capacity reached 7.19GW in 2022. Germany added 14.28GW of photovoltaic installed capacity in 2023, doubling year-on-year. As of the end of December 2023, there were approximately 3.67 million photovoltaic systems in operation in Germany, with a cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity of 81.3GW. Germany has always been a country that mainly deploys rooftop photovoltaic systems. However, the changes in the market segment in early 2024 are noticeable. There was a surge in new ground projects in early 2024, while the number of rooftop photovoltaic projects in February shrank compared with January. .

Germany's "2023 Renewable Energy Act" plans to increase photovoltaic power generation capacity to 215GW by 2030, including an average of 11GW of ground-level photovoltaic and 11GW of rooftop photovoltaic added annually from 2026 to 2030, simplifying tenant power generation and building joint power supply, promoting balcony photovoltaics, and increasing Photovoltaic industry production capacity and other strategies.

Germany approved a draft "Photovoltaic Package" in August 2023 to help users remove obstacles to installing photovoltaic systems. In order to stimulate the demand for photovoltaics in distributed projects, Germany proposes to exempt rooftop photovoltaics from income tax and value-added tax, increase the grid-connected electricity price for users, plus additional subsidies, capacity subsidy policies, financing support and the elimination of green energy surcharges.

Germany is the largest photovoltaic market in Europe. It is estimated that Germany's new photovoltaic installed capacity is expected to reach 20.44GW in 2024, and its module demand is equivalent to about 24-26GW, accounting for 20% of Europe's total demand.