PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

One million solar energy systems for Germany?

What can the solar industry hope to gain from another four years of a Social Democratic (SPD)-Green party coalition? The first answer came from SPD board member Hermann Scheer, who announced that his party had plans to develop a 1 Million Systems Program in the world's second largest PV market.

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Hermann Scheer, member of the Bundestag for the Social Democrats and President of the NGO Eurosolar, is pushing for a German 1 Million Systems Program to succeed the 100,000 Roof Program.

»I've referred to it constantly for quite some time now, but all anyone wanted to know was: Will the EEG survive?« But after September's national elections, Hermann Scheer is finally receiving due attention for something he has mentioned in speeches for almost a year: a 1 Million Systems Program.

Fears of what the possible election of a new government would have meant for the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) have subsided. In fact, the election could not have turned out any better for the solar industry. The conservatives (CDU/CSU) and their potential coalition partner, the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), which looked as likely winners of the election for a long time, were soundly defeated in the home stretch. And for the time being, influential economic experts like Walter Hirche (FDP) and Matthias Wissmann (CDU) will remain where a majority of the German PV industry believe they should: in the opposition, where they can't harm PV with their ideas that renewables should compete against one another.

With the old government staying in place, the premium feed-in tariff guaranteed through the EEG, the basis for the German solar boom, should not only continue unabated, many even hope for improvements: »Renewable energies under the control of [Jürgen] Trittin as environment minister, that would be a real boost,« a representative of one of the largest solar companies commented directly after elections off the record. And indeed, the Greens won this battle for departmental responsibilities within the coalition, although it would have still been progress if solar energy were under the authority of the newly merged Ministry of Economics and Labor. Wolfgang Clement, the much-touted »Superminister,« supposedly better understands the need for renewable energies than his predecessor the Minister of Economics Werner Müller. After all, support for renewable energies in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's largest state, where Clement served as premier, was markedly better than in other German states. In addition, Clement - though tightly connected to the still large coal industry in North Rhine-Westphalia - was one of the crucial supporters of the introduction of the premium feed-in tariff for solar during the design phase of the EEG.

The Greens are apparently satisfied to have gained control over renewables at the Environment Ministry. At least Michaele Hustedt, energy spokeswoman for the Greens, says that they do not support the establishment of a »Ministry of Renewable Energies,« something much lobbied for by the leading German solar industry lobby association Unternehmensvereinigung Solarwirtschaft e.V. (UVS). The suggestion of a new ministry, which even UVS manager Carsten Körnig himself considers more of a rhetorical act than anything else, appears to most decision-makers to go a bit too far. However, India has had such a department, the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, for ten years. But in comparison to Europe, the leadership of affairs of state in India is quite broadly construed – they have about 45 different ministers!

The point of UVS is certainly clear: They want the government to place more importance on renewable energies, and in particular on solar. Although always ready to proudly praise their country's policies on renewables, which do fare well in an international comparison, energy experts within the government and opposition cannot be complacent about the current state of affairs. If the government wants to achieve its already declared goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 40 percent of their 1990 values until the year 2020, it is going to have to put the pedal to the metal. Moreover, the coalition will not be able to benefit from a massive decrease in emissions like that which resulted from the collapse of East Germany's industry after German reunification – a reduction that had little to do with any of the government's energy policy initiatives.

Hermann Scheer, chairman of the European solar lobby NGO Eurosolar and an MP (SPD), together with Green party member Hans-Josef Fell, one of the primary initiators of the EEG, foresee two fundamental goals for German PV: in the short term, the removal of caps in the subsidy guidelines, and in the middle term the establishment of additional funding mechanisms.

At first, Scheer believes the time is ripe to improve the feed-in tariff for PV legally stipulated in the EEG. Shortly before the elections, the government increased the 350 MW cap to 1,000 MW. But even this limit should be pushed aside at the next opportunity, Scheer thinks – after all, the EEG defines no cap for any of the other renewables. He thinks the limit could be eliminated as part of the coming amendment of the EEG, a project resisted by former minister Müller, who only agreed to the increase to 1,000 MW shortly before the election. But additional changes to the EEG had been planned and generally agreed upon by the associations in April, so the EEG amendment can now »proceed quickly,« says Scheer.

A more urgent subject requiring clarification is what the government will do for compensation when the 300 MW cap of the 100,000 Roofs Program is reached – targeted for the end of 2003. In Germany, a return on investment in a solar system is only possible if an investor combines the premium feed-in tariff paid over 20 years with soft loans through the 100,000 Roofs Program. Scheer, initiator of that program, wants to build on this successful funding tool and has proposed a 1 Million Systems Program.

Not only the size but also the type of support could be expanded via »motivational incentives of all kinds,« says Scheer. Everyone should jump on the solar bandwagon, not just the previously most important target group: homeowners. For example, Scheer is also envisioning façade-integrated solar modules. This is one of the reasons he does not speak of a new »roof« program, but rather a program for systems. However, nothing is fixed and the coalition contract between the Greens and the SPD does not include Scheer's idea, who wants to worked out program details over the next few months in the NGO Eurosolar Germany's forum with members of parliament. »Anyone with good ideas about how to organize this program should contact us,« says Scheer.