Thursday, February 23, 2012

Germany unveils plans to slash solar FIT three months early

It's the feed-in tariff mechanism that needs to go - Germany fiddles faster while avoiding acknowledging the economic error.
Germany unveils plans to slash solar FIT three months early - Solar - Renewable energy news - Recharge - wind, solar, biomass, wave/tidal/hydro and geothermal:
"Germany’s environment and economy ministries have agreed a plan to slash the solar feed-in tariff (FIT) and kill support altogether for projects larger than 10MW, after being forced into dramatic action by yet another record year for installations in 2011."
In addition to lowering the support levels by between 20% and 30% (depending on the system size), the government intends to bring the changes forward to 9 March – nearly three months before the 1 July deadline when the next FIT adjustments were expected.
The government also confirms it will start adjusting the FIT on a monthly basis, a decision that may be copied by other countries as they struggle to reconcile their support for PV with the rapidly falling price of modules.
Only three categories for PV installations would exist under the new system, if – as expected – it is approved by Germany’s parliament:
Projects smaller than 10kW would receive €0.195 ($0.26) per kWh; those between 10kW-1MW would receive €0.165/kW; and those between 1MW-10MW would receive €0.135/kWh.
Projects larger than 10MW would no longer be eligible for any FIT support, effectively stopping the ground-mounted segment in its tracks – or at least putting it on ice for a few years, until the price of PV has fallen even further.
By comparison, the smallest projects were eligible for €0.49 per kWh as recently as 2007.
Read the full article at rechargenews.com

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