Two thirds of property owners want to purchase a solar power system, one in six within the next 12 months – Solar batteries are now standard in new PV systems – Surveys show that solar installations are increasingly combined with a wallbox to charge electric vehicles and with a heat pump
Photovoltaics and solar batteries are enjoying ever growing popularity. The solar industry in Germany and around the world is forecasting strong double-digit growth for 2023. According to a representative YouGov survey carried out on behalf of BSW, 66 percent of property owners with a suitable rooftop are considering purchasing a photovoltaic system for generating electricity; more than one in six is already planning to do so within the next 12 months. The interest in PV systems has increased noticeably among companies and solar park investors as well. Over one third (37 percent) of them are planning to install a photovoltaic system on their company’s rooftop in the coming years. Recent state auctions for ground-mounted solar power plants were oversubscribed.
According to BSW data, solar technology not only covers an ever-growing share of electricity requirements, it now has also made the leap into the mobility and heating sectors. According to data published by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) and estimates by the German Solar Association (BSW), around three million solar power installations and over 800,000 solar storage units are in operation in Germany. The latter help align solar power supply with individual demand and serve both to balance out fluctuations in generation and stabilize the power grid.
Of the new solar power systems mounted on owner-occupied homes, around 78% are now combined with a storage system, 43 percent with a wallbox and 38 percent with a heat pump. This was the result of a survey of installers carried out by the association in May, in the run-up to the opening of the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry Intersolar and the storage technology exhibition ees Europe, which are expected to draw a record 85,000 visitors.
BSW Managing Director Carsten Körnig: “From large-scale solar parks to small balcony power plants, demand has skyrocketed. Solar technology is not only steadily improving the climate balance of the electricity mix. Inexpensive solar energy has by now also become an important driver of the transition in the transport and heating sectors. Ever since the recent energy crisis at the very latest, people understand what an enormous unused energy potential there is sitting on the rooftops of most buildings. The average roof of a single-family home is as a rule sufficient to cover the entire electricity, heating and mobility requirements of a four-person family.”
According to BSW, a typical 70-square-meter photovoltaic system with a nominal output of 13 kilowatts produces as much electricity per year as the total energy consumption of a four-person household: electricity for the household, for driving up to 20,000 kilometers per year in an electric car, and for a heat pump to heat a single-family home with average insulation.
The demand from property owners for photovoltaic and solar storage systems has more than tripled between 2019 and 2022. This follows from an analysis of the core energy market data register published by the Bundesnetzagentur. The latest market figures also point to further growth: In the home segment alone, more than twice as many solar power systems were installed in the first four months of the year as in the same period in the previous year (an increase of 129 percent). The total volume of installed PV capacity in the first four months of this year increased by 51 percent. For the year as a whole, BSW forecasts 9-11 gigawatts of newly installed solar power capacity in Germany (previous year: 7.4 GW). BSW expects that by the end of June the number of newly installed solar power storage systems will exceed the number of solar battery systems installed during the entire year of 2022.
Körnig is optimistic about the future: “Almost all signs continue to point to growth: Solar power systems are inexpensive, the number of skilled technicians is on the rise, the supply situation is improving and market barriers are increasingly being removed. He identifies risks to this growth trajectory in the increased financing costs due to high interest rates, as well as in any potential changes to these positive developments.
The annual solar power harvest from installed PV systems is sufficient to cover over ten percent of the country’s domestic electricity requirements with environmentally friendly technology. Following decisions adopted by the current coalition of FDP, SPD and the Greens (“Traffic Light Coalition”), that share is set to increase to over 25 percent by 2030. The implementation of a PV strategy passed by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck in May of this year is intended to remove remaining market barriers.
Further information:
Up-to-date press graphics, including on the above-mentioned data, is available at:
/presse/mediathek/
The presentation of the press conference can be accessed at the following link:
https://bsw.li/45SxNRQ
