'All signs point to growth' | German solar additions may top 10GW this year: BSW

Europe’s largest PV market is set to grow by double-digit percentage figures for the seventh year in a row and is likely to install a record 9-11GW in new capacity in 2023, while solar battery additions will grow exponentially, the German solar industry federation (BSW) said.

German solar installations last year had already been booming, with 7.4GW in additions.

Demand for PV and solar storage systems has more than tripled between 2019 and 2022 in the country, the BSW said, adding that more than three quarters of property owners can imagine buying a solar installation to generate power and/or heat, while more than one in five homeowners are already planning to do so within the next 12 months, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by the BSW in late May.

“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,” BSW managing director Carsten Körnig said, but cautioned that increased financing costs due to high interest rates pose risks to the boom.

3 million solar systems

The BSW’s forecast is backed by an 146% jump in first quarter 2023 PV additions in the home segment to 159,000.

Germany’s federal grids agency (BNetzA) in May had said that the country’s three millionth solar power system became operational.

Growth is even faster in the battery storage segment, where 214,000 systems were installed last year, a figure the BSW reckons this year will be already bet topped by the end of June.

Solar power last year already met 12% of the country’s power needs, a share policies by the current Social Democratic-Green-Liberal government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz according to the BSW could help doubling to over 25%.

To achieve such ambition, economics and climate minister Robert Habeck in May had announced a new PV strategy, which are intended to boost Germany’s installed solar capacity to 215GW by 2030 – up from 67GW at the end of last year – as part of an effort to reach a target of 80%