Installations and FiTs in Germany

Steps

Germany recently published installation statistics showing that 367.717 MW were installed in April. That's actually more than the 359 MW installed last year in the same month. The April statistics show a continuation of healthy performance in the sub 10 kW category and the over 1 MW category with weaker performance in the middle categories.

Germany is only just finishing with one of the worst winters ever recorded so there's a chance that some pent up demand spilled into April from the long winter - I can't say for sure but am only speculating on the conservative side. If May and June show strong performance we'll know the market is balancing. If the anti-dumping tariff goes through all bets are off.

If healthy growth continues in the sub 10 kW category it would make sense to combine the sub 10 kW tranche with the 10 to 40 kW FiT tranche. As it stands the difference between these categories is less than a penny and the rates are slowly converging. Harmonizing the rates between these tranches would remove the artificial barrier to sizing systems over 10 kW. Ideally, all the solar FiT rates should be the same but the market isn't quite ready for that - maybe sometime next year - baby steps...