The use of solar power is becoming more and more interesting in the big cities. As a result, residents of apartment buildings can finally benefit from cheap solar power. Tenant electricity and neighborhood supply combine consumer demands for cheap and clean energy with new opportunities for the energy and housing industry. By entering into tenant electricity and neighborhood supply solutions, the building services are being modernized, thereby reducing an investment backlog. Entirely new options are opening up, for example, for energy management, recording consumption data, or entering the field of electromobility. Further information on the topic of tenant electricity can be found at sonneteilen.de (German)
More and more entrepreneurs in Germany want to make an active contribution to climate protection and are investing in their own photovoltaic systems, in the electrification of their own vehicle fleet and in e-filling stations for their own staff. A combination of a photovoltaic system, solar power storage, and e-vehicles also makes sense for business management reasons. This is because solar power from the company’s own solar power system is usually less expensive for commercial enterprises than electricity from the energy supplier. In addition, companies can optimise their load profiles and reduce costs by avoiding peak loads. The trade guide “Combining photovoltaics and electromobility sensibly”, developed by the German Solar Association in the EU-funded project PV-Prosumers4Grid, points the way to practical implementation.
The feed-in management of PV systems is playing an increasingly important role due to the growing share of solar power in the grid. This creates new challenges and requirements for solar power operators, such as the technical specifications of Section 9 of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The specific requirements to be met depend on the size of the plant. Plants with an installed capacity of more than 100 kWp must have technical devices that enable the grid operator to call up the feed-in power at any time and to reduce it remotely in the event of grid overload. For plants with an installed capacity of up to 100 kWp, the equipment with technical devices is sufficient for a remote-controlled reduction of the feed-in power in case of grid overload by the grid operator. For plants with an installed capacity of up to 30 kWp, the plant operator can alternatively limit the maximum active power feed-in to 70 percent of the installed capacity from the outset. PV systems with an installed capacity of 100 kWp or less may only be regulated at a lower level than other renewable energy and CHP systems.
Photovoltaics has made great strides towards competitiveness in recent years. More and more private households and electricity consumers in trade, commerce, and industry, but also increasingly municipal utilities, energy cooperatives, and local housing associations are using solar electricity for their own consumption or within the framework of new direct marketing models. These new business models—above all own consumption, electricity supply, plant leasing, operator and business management models—are increasingly becoming the basis for the economic operation of PV plants. They support the PV market, especially where the sharp drop in feed-in tariffs under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is no longer sufficient to refinance on its own. In this sense, they are gradually taking photovoltaics out of the EEG’s support system.
The German Solar Association is committed to the solar industry in Germany and internationally to the development of new business models for solar power. On the one hand, the focus is on the design of suitable legal and administrative framework conditions. At the same time, there is still considerable uncertainty among many market players about the potential but also about how to open up sales and the concrete implementation of such new business models. This concerns questions of financing, plant and metering concepts, the regulatory framework of the energy industry, and the concrete contractual relationships between plant operators, land owners, investors, and electricity consumers.
