Germany Exceeds 100 GW Solar PV Capacity Milestone, Says BSW-Solar
Source：taiyangnews
BSW-Solar says while the residential rooftop solar segment was the leading segment for solar PV in Germany all these years, installations in this area dropped by around 15% YoY in 2024. Nevertheless, the country now touts over 100 GW in cumulative PV capacity. (Photo Credit: BSW-Solar)
Key Takeaways
Germany’s total installed solar PV capacity has now exceeded 100 GW, according to BSW-Solar
Most of the increase last year came from the ground-mounted PV segment while balcony power plants also experienced a boom
Fraunhofer ISE says the country is likely to report around 15.9 GW of new PV capacity additions for 2024
According to BNetzA, renewable energy accounted for 59% of the country’s total electricity mix last year
Renewable energy generation was a major highlight for Germany last year as the country experienced the cleanest electricity mix in 2024 with renewables reaching a record share of 62.7%, according to the Fraunhofer ISE. The German solar association BSW-Solar says the country achieved the milestone of exceeding 100 GW in cumulative installed solar PV capacity at the turn of the year.
This 100 GW comprises 38 GW of residential rooftop solar, 29 GW of commercial rooftop, 32 GW of ground-mounted PV, and 700 MW of plug-in solar devices.
BSW-Solar believes around 1 million PV systems with a peak output of around 17 GW were newly commissioned on rooftops and open spaces in 2024, representing a 10% year-on-year (YoY) increase, while referring to the country’s Federal Network Agency or Bundesnetzagentur’s (BNetzA) recent projections.
In 2024, the major increase came from the ground-mounted solar PV segment that increased by around 40% YoY with 6.3 GW, but the residential rooftop segment slowed down as installations dropped by 15%. Commercial solar systems grew by close to 25% over the same period, while balcony power plants continued to boom.
The regulator BNetzA says Germany generated 431.7 TWh of total electricity in 2024, down 4.2% year-on-year (YoY). Of this, 59% or 254.9 TWh came from renewable energy sources, which increased their share from 56% in 2023. “Renewable energies are therefore the most important energy source for the electricity supply in Germany over the course of the year,” stated the agency.
Among renewables, wind energy contributed the highest share with offshore generating 25.7 TWh and onshore 111.9 TWh. Solar PV systems fed in 66.3 TWh, having increased their generation from 55.7 TWh in 2023, while biomass contributed 36 TWh.
In comparison, power generation from conventional energy sources declined 10.9% to 176.8 TWh.
However, Fraunhofer ISE counts solar power generation to have reached a new record of 72.2 TWh in 2024, of which 59.8 TWh was fed into the public grid and 12.4 TWh was used for self-consumption. The largest volume of solar power generation was reported in July 2024 at 8.7 TWh.
Analysts at Fraunhofer ISE believe Germany is likely to report around 15.9 GW of new solar PV capacity additions in 2024, as against the 13 GW official target for the year. BNetzA had earlier pegged the country’s 11M 2024 new solar PV capacity at 14.53 GW (see German Solar PV Installations Increased By Over 1 GW In November 2024).
BSW-Solar says Germany has now achieved around 46% of its 215 GW solar PV target for 2030.