As of: February 26, 2024, 2:00 p.m
By: Christoph Peters
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After no large solar park in the district went online in 2023, that is likely to change this year.
An agri-PV system with an output of 8 MW is currently being built in Schongau.
© Hans-Helmut Herold
In order to achieve the energy transition, the generation of electricity from renewable sources must be massively expanded.
At least when it comes to photovoltaics, the pace in the Weilheim-Schongau district seems to be right.
District - It recently became clear once again that the energy transition in Bavaria is not an easy matter.
In Mehring in the Altötting district, the majority of citizens voted against wind turbines in the municipal area, which put a real damper on the plans for the largest planned wind farm in the Free State.
As is well known, in the Weilheim-Schongau district there is at best a mild breeze when it comes to wind power (we reported).
On the other hand, and that's the good news, things are going much better in this country when it comes to the expansion of photovoltaics.
This is shown by a look at the current figures.
According to the Federal Network Agency's market master data register, in which all systems must be registered, around 1,900 PV systems went into operation last year alone, which together have a nominal output of around 18 megawatts.
Compared to 2022, the expansion has virtually doubled.
The fact that this applies not only to output but also to the number of generation systems shows that the recent boom is not based on the construction of huge solar parks.
In fact, no larger open-space systems went into operation last year, says Andreas Scharli from Energiewende Oberland.
The expansion took place primarily on the roofs of the region.
Compared to other districts, Weilheim-Schongau is doing well
With a total of 180 megawatts of installed PV capacity, the district is doing well compared to its neighbors.
In Garmisch-Partenkirchen the figure is significantly lower at 50.5 megawatts; in 2023, just under eight megawatts were added there.
In the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district, the market master data register for the past year shows an increase of almost 15 megawatts to 91 megawatts of installed capacity.
Only in the Landsberg district are there signs of even more growth.
In the past year, 30.8 megawatts of power were added and the installed capacity rose to an impressive 251 MW.
The fact that more homeowners in the Weilheim-Schongau district decided to take power generation into their own hands last year than in previous years is likely to have a lot to do with the relief that the traffic light government in 2022, which is currently often in the crossfire of criticism, has made had brought away.
Until then, setting up a private photovoltaic system was often associated with a lot of bureaucracy.
Since January 2023, many hurdles have been a thing of the past.
Income from the sale of solar power and private use for self-sufficiency no longer have to be taxed.
The systems can now produce up to 30 kilowatts.
“Everything has been made much easier,” says Scharli.
There is also the financial incentive of eliminating VAT when purchasing a PV system and the associated electricity storage system.
The high electricity prices also make generating energy on your own roof attractive.
“Security of supply also plays a role for many,” the energy manager stated.
The demand for solutions that guarantee emergency power supply has increased.
But even those who don't have roof space can use solar power.
The so-called balcony power plants offer tenants an easy way to reduce their energy requirements from the grid.
At least 428 of these plug-in PV systems with a total output of 250 kW were installed in the district in 2023.
“This shows that these small systems also make a valuable contribution to the energy transition,” says Scharli.
More and more PV systems are being built on the roofs of commercial businesses
There is another point that is striking in the development compared to previous years.
The number of systems with outputs in the range between 100 and 500 kW has also increased significantly.
These are primarily located on the roofs of commercial businesses.
“We hardly had that at all before,” says Scharli.
On the one hand, this is because solar has been mandatory for new commercial and industrial buildings since March 2023.
On the other hand, according to Scharli, more and more existing halls are being used to generate electricity.
“This makes economic sense, especially for companies that produce on a daily basis and can use the electricity themselves.
“It’s actually a no-brainer,” says Scharli.
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From the energy manager's point of view, there is much to suggest that the trend from last year will continue.
The increasing spread of electric cars and heat pumps is also likely to contribute.
The potential for roof space in the district is still great, says Scharli.
Especially since a large faction is currently still living in the shadows.
PV systems have so far been a rarity in multi-family buildings, which, according to Scharli, is because selling the electricity generated to tenants is still a complicated bureaucratic matter.
“It would be desirable if this were also simplified.”
But the sun business in the district is not only booming on roofs.
In recent months, new projects for the construction of open-space facilities have sprouted like mushrooms across the region.
Some are now nearing completion.
A large agri-PV system with an output of 8 MW is currently being built in Schongau.
A solar park with 4.5 MW of output is scheduled to go online this year in Antdorf.
In Bernbeuren, work is underway on the “Osterberg Solar Park”, which is expected to generate 10,800 megawatt hours of solar power annually for around 2,700 households.
With these projects alone, the expansion from last year would have been significantly exceeded.
Construction of several smaller projects could also begin around Weilheim this year.
It is still unclear whether the largest project in the district to date will be implemented in the west of the district town.
For the planned plant with an output of 35 MW, a number of hurdles still have to be overcome.
“A lot is happening right now,” says Scharli happily.
Of course, the plans are not always met with enthusiasm.
Like in Peiting, where a large open-field PV system with up to eight megawatts is also to be built near Kurzenried this year, critics warn of the loss of land for agriculture.
The market town council rejected a planned open space facility in the south of Peiting last year.
There were concerns about the appearance of the town.
In Weilheim, residents are protesting against a PV project in the south of the city.
Some municipalities, such as Schwabsoien, have therefore already issued rules that regulate the construction of solar parks.
Connection boom poses challenges for network providers
In addition to this area of tension, there is another problem.
It affects the power grids that have to absorb and transport the renewable electricity generated by the photovoltaic systems.
Training them accordingly is a mammoth task.
“By the end of the decade, the entire capacity in the regional power grid must be expanded by around 50 percent so that the additional generation output can be absorbed and distributed,” explains Ingo Butters, press spokesman for LEW Verteilnetz, which is the network operator responsible for the Schongau area Dimension.
For 2023 alone, around 25,000 new PV systems have been added throughout the LEW distribution network area.
For comparison: in 2020, the annual expansion in the entire network area, which stretches from Schongau to Donauwörth, was around 6,500 systems, said Butters.
The situation is similar at Bayernwerk, which is active as a network operator in the Weilheim area.
“We are currently experiencing a connection boom with more than 100,000 inquiries to Bayernwerk Netz in 2023,” says press spokesman Christian Martens.
But the necessary network expansion and the desired digitalization of the energy supply do not happen overnight.
“One challenge is that the approval process takes much longer than building new generation plants,” says Butters.
As an example, he points to the renewal of the high-voltage line from Biden to Schongau.
The process has been running since the 2010s and has still not been completed for the last section from Schwabbruck to Lechstadt.
The search for locations for new local network stations has also become very difficult at the medium and low voltage level.
However, these would be needed “if we need to strengthen the power grid for additional feed-in into the local networks”.
Such bottlenecks can mean that new PV systems cannot be connected to the grid immediately or that the feed-in of existing ones has to be throttled.
The latter does not currently occur in regular operations at LEW distribution network, says Butters.
However, if network expansion does not progress quickly enough, such curtailment measures could become necessary in the future, he warns.
Martens also speaks of a new challenge with regard to “bottleneck management”.
But even if there is nothing to speak against a connection in terms of network technology, patience is often required at the moment.
According to Martens, it takes an average of around ten weeks in the Bayernwerk network area from the commissioning of a new private PV system to the meter replacement.
The situation at LEW is similar.
“The exponential development in the construction of new PV systems has once again far exceeded the already high expectations for the ramp-up.
This undoubtedly presents us with significant challenges when processing applications for new facilities,” says Butters.
In the ideal case, registration on the network takes place within a few days; replacing the meter could take another “few weeks”.