Solar expansion stronger than ever

28.11.2024

Around 2,200 MW more than last year: the expansion of solar capacity will reach a new record high in 2024, reports the BDEW. With regard to the electricity grid, the association sees land under water.

The leading organization warns of floods: "In a way, you can imagine photovoltaic systems as bubbling springs that flow into a river. If the springs bubble up unchecked, the river can burst its banks," the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) quotes its head, Kerstin Andreae. The Chairwoman of the Executive Board takes the current PV installation figures as an opportunity to highlight the need for action in the amendment of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG). "An active power limitation is like a weir that regulates the inflow so that the flow is steady and safe," says Andreae, illustrating what the industry is waiting for.

According to the BDEW survey, the addition of photovoltaic capacity is expected to total 17,500 MW this year. That would be 2,200 MW more than in 2023. "With the solar capacity added this year, we are once again reaching record levels, also thanks to grid connections," says Andreae. Around half of the installed capacity is accounted for by systems with an output of less than 100 kW, the association added. These are systems that can feed uncontrolled electricity into the grid. On sunny days, the electricity grid has therefore been reaching its limits here and there for some time.

"Time buffer" for grid operators

The BDEW believes that the stability of the overall system is at risk. "The amount of uncontrolled electricity now threatens to exceed consumption next spring and summer on sunny Sundays with low electricity demand. This problem exists even with perfect grid expansion," says Andreae.

Grid operators need to be able to "directly intervene in smaller systems". Until this is achieved, a 50 percent active power limit for new plants is required. The BDEW refers to the regulation as a "time buffer" and a central measure in the EnWG amendment. In order to mitigate the PV peak problem, "we urgently need the EnWG amendment to be implemented before the end of this legislative period," emphasizes the association's head.

Forced pause for the expansion of renewables

Throttling PV systems is not enough everywhere. In the unified municipality of Ostenburg in the Altmark (Saxony-Anhalt), it will be several years before new renewable energy systems can be connected to the grid. The power lines to the substation are at full capacity and new solar parks and wind turbines will not be able to be connected again until around 2028, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk reported recently. The Altmark generates ten times more electricity than it consumes, Matthias Köberle, head of the building authority in Osterburg, told the broadcaster. In his opinion, it was not foreseeable a few years ago that the electricity grid would reach its limits so soon.

Boom in North Rhine-Westphalia

A new record is also being celebrated in North Rhine-Westphalia. "Based on the figures available for the first ten months, we assume that the record expansion from last year will be slightly exceeded by the end of this year," said Hans-Josef Vogel, Chairman of the State Association for Renewable Energy (LEE NRW), at the start of the Solar Solutions Düsseldorf 2024 trade fair. According to an evaluation by the LEE, by mid-November, a good 180,000 solar power plants with a newly installed capacity of 1,822 MW had been added. This is around 30 MW more than in the same period last year.

Half of the PV systems reported in the market master data register in NRW - around 79,000 - are balcony power plants. "Solar is becoming the new normal, especially in cities," says Vogel.

Author: Manfred Fischer, E&M powernews