Source: PV-Magazine                                                                                                                                    Date: 11. NOVEMBER 2017

The regulation is intended to support tenants to participate in the advantages of a PV system on the roof of larger apartment buildings, up to 100 kW with a special additional tariff.

The European Commission has approved Germany’s law for tenants’ solar power supply. The law had been approved by the German Parliament in the summer and came officially into force on July 25. The incentives granted by the new regulation, however, had not been paid off to date, due to the lack of the EU approval, and this is now possible.

The German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) now expects a significant increasing interest in locally produced photovoltaic offerings from tenants. In view of the significant drop in photovoltaic generation costs, these could often be offered cheaper than conventional electricity tariffs. Under the law, they must be at least ten percent cheaper than the basic service tariff in the region.

BSW-Solar, together with three other associations, had recently prepared a potential analysis. According to the study, up to 33,000 photovoltaic systems could be built on large buildings in the 20 largest cities, including 1.4 million tenants. “Now it finally starts with the tenant flow in Germany’s major cities. Significantly lower photovoltaic prices and the new tenant electricity law of the Federal Government make this possible, “explained Carsten Körnig, managing director of BSW-Solar. “In addition to housing companies, photovoltaic tenant electricity models, especially for municipal utilities, have proven to be a new business model for customer loyalty.”

Upon entry into force of the law, the tenant electricity projects will be recorded separately by the Federal Network Agency. By the end of September, just 18 plants with a total of about 350 kilowatts had been reported to the Bonn authorities. The operators can now look forward to the payment of the tenant electricity subsidy. The new rules are intended to support tenants to participate in the advantages of a PV system on the roof of larger apparment houses up to 100 kW with a special additional tariff ranging from €0.0221 ($0.0239)/kWh to €0.0380 ($0.0411)/kWh.