Shocking news for solar system pioneers: Who now has to worry about the photovoltaic subsidy

Owners of solar systems in the Ebersberg district are currently receiving unpleasant mail: From a certain age, there is no longer any funding for photovoltaic roofs. If you don't want to scrap or pay for your system, you have to look around.

District - Rosi Stemmer fondly remembers when a mother with a child walked past her house, the child suddenly pointed excitedly upstairs and shouted: “Mom, I thought roofs are red!” Back then, before the turn of the millennium, as bluish shimmering solar systems a rarity and the Stemmers were pioneers. In 1996 the couple from Weiding near Ebersberg screwed a photovoltaic system onto their roof with 20 kW. In the same year, the spelling reform turned it into a photovoltaic system.

Whether with F or Ph - solar power pays off in our latitudes mainly thanks to the feed-in tariff . The Stemmers will obviously have to do without this money in the future: Bayernwerk terminated all contracts at the end of the year. Reason: The promotion of your solar system according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act is running out. "When the funding expires, we are no longer allowed to pay for the electricity generated by your system, " says the letter of termination .

"The current situation is annoying."

Like the Stemmers, many photovoltaic pioneers in the Ebersberg district are doing . Anna Neumeier from the Ebersberg-Munich energy agency says: “The current situation is annoying.” The EEG funding, which has existed in its current form since the turn of the millennium, is limited to 20 years plus the year in which the system was installed. So now the first are no longer eligible for funding - including those like the Stemmers', which were taken over into the EEG from previous funding programs. According to the data from the “Solar Energy Funding Association Germany”, this affects 5597 systems across Bavaria.

Owners of older photovoltaic systems have to take action themselves

For the owners this means: they have to look around. The Bayernwerk advises the Stemmers to switch to self- sufficiency. And the best thing is to buy a battery storage unit. “It's no longer profitable for us,” says Rosi Stemmer. “We know that we won't get the same thing as before.” But to be completely out of funding - she finds that unfair. If the family were to scrap their system and buy a new one, the 20 years of EEG feed-in funding would start all over - with feed-in tariffs of less than ten cents per kilowatt hour. So far, energy pioneers from the early days of the EEG have earned around 50 cents per kilowatt hour. The energy consultant and solar specialist Neumeier says: "The old systems are by far in the profit zone and paid off." But too good to throw away. Attractive alternatives are currently rare.

According to Neumeier , solar pioneers who are no longer eligible for EEG subsidies and still want to continue feeding their self-generated solar power into the grid will have to look for an intermediary on their own according to the current status. In the case of small systems, this usually requires a retrofit that costs around 1,000 euros. In order to then surrender to the free electricity market . The current market price, according to the specialist from the energy agency : four to five cents. “It is not profitable,” she says. Especially since the range of customers for small systems is still very manageable.

Solar power pioneers: Hope for an amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG)

Rosi Stemmer also says: “I have to beg that they take the electricity.” A ray of hope according to Bayernwerk and the energy agency : the amendment to the EEG planned for autumn. This could also contain a regulation that makes it easier for the pioneer plants to feed in. "The EU law would exist," says energy advisor Neumeier. However, the draft law is currently being delayed.

And the remuneration, if there is still one, will be far less than that of the old contracts . “It makes sense to set up for self- sufficiency,” says Neumeier.

For more information

For the operation of older solar systems , the energy agency recommends the consulting project "PVLOTSE" of the German Society for Solar Energy - to be found online at dgs.de/service/pvlotse or by telephone hotline at (030) 23 32 62 10.