Germany to make solar power plant construction easier, with households also set to benefit

Berlin, 16 August (ČTK correspondent) – The German government today approved a solar package that will make it easier for households and businesses to operate their own photovoltaic power plants. The aim of the adopted bill, which still needs to be considered by parliament and could take effect at the start of the new year, is to reduce the bureaucratic burden.

„We need to accelerate the pace of building solar power sources and cut bureaucracy; that is exactly what the solar package delivers,“ Economy Minister Robert Habeck said today of the adopted proposal.

„We have to triple the pace of construction and reach our target of building 22 gigawatts of capacity per year by 2026. That is an ambitious plan, given that the figure was 7.5 gigawatts last year,“ he added.

It will now be much easier for ordinary households to put a so-called balcony solar power system into operation. These devices, which work when plugged into an electrical socket, currently have to be registered with the electricity supplier and the Federal Network Agency, the regulatory authority. Old electricity meters also have to be replaced with digital ones. Under the new rules, it will be sufficient to register balcony panels in a database. These power sources can temporarily also be operated with old, non-digital meters, which allow the counter to run backwards when excess electricity flows into the grid.