GERMANY SPEEDS F-I-T CUT

Report: Germany To Accelerate Scheduled Solar Feed-In-Tariff Reductions
22 February 2012 (Solar Industry)

"Germany's environment ministry and economy ministry have developed a plan that calls for accelerating the next round of PV feed-in-tariff (FIT) reductions. Under the plan, the government will now slash FITs earlier and more deeply than was originally planned.

"…[T]he next FIT reduction will now take place on April 1 (rather than July 1 as initially scheduled) and will reduce the FIT by 20% for small roof-mounted projects and up to 30% for larger installations. The July FIT cut was scheduled to be just 15%."

This decision could impact the world solar market. (click to enlarge)

"The plan also imposes a 90% limit on the proportion of solar power that can be fed into the grid from a given plant…[T]he accelerated FIT reductions [may] threaten thousands of solar jobs and hurt installation growth in Germany.

"…[This follows the release of a new report] projecting that Germany will produce 36% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020."