Signal to investors, companies and consumers
Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen has welcomed the agreement reached yesterday in the Mediation Committee on lowering the support rate for solar power under the Renewable Energy Sources Act. "This sends an important signal. Investors and companies now have clarity for their investment decisions, while consumers finally have the assurance that support for solar power is not getting out of hand," said Röttgen.
Yesterday evening (Monday 5 July) the Mediation Committee agreed on a two-step process for reducing the feed-in tariff for solar electricity. The previous Bundestag decision of 6 May 2010 only envisaged a single step. The proposed reduction from 1 July 2010 remains in place, but for the time being support will only be cut by 13% for rooftop installations, 8% for freestanding installations on so-called conversion areas - for example former military or industrial sites - and by 12% for other freestanding systems such as those in business parks. The rest of the draft act, including the abolition of the tariff for cropland, is unchanged. The 3% reduction step contained in the original draft will now be implemented on 1 October this year.
"This cut is overdue. Over the past months the gap between the rapidly sinking costs of photovoltaic systems and the slow reduction of support rates has become wider and wider. To allow investors to gain unacceptably high returns which the majority of consumers have paid for via their electricity bill would discredit the expansion of renewable energies as a whole," said the Federal Environment Minister.