Of course, you have to examine this solar roller coaster and draw conclusions for the future. However, you cannot predict the next unexpected turn; let alone what will happen in ten years' time. And yet: what we are beginning to see today - sector coupling, storage technologies, green hydrogen - all this had been forecast. We knew where the journey was going. We just couldn't say exactly when we would get there.
70 per cent by 2030 in Europe
And we still can't. But I would be very disappointed if by 2030 renewables did not cover at least 70 per cent of electricity generation in Europe, with solar energy as a mainstay. It is more difficult when it comes to the impact of solar energy on other sectors such as heat and transport. There is still a lot to do here, but I am sure that solar energy will continue to do what it does best: Exceeding forecasts, acting flexibly, offering cost efficiency and disrupting so far unchallenged structures.
Please get out of our way!
It may not be super politically correct to say so, but: please get out of our way! The solar industry will expand well as long as politics does not stand in its way. With regard to the current proposal for the Renewable Energy Sources Act, this means: get rid of the solar tax!
See also: Fabrizio Limani from Panasonic: Independence through photovoltaics
It is incomprehensible why companies and private individuals who invest in a solar system and thus promote the energy transition have to pay a solar tax on every kilowatt hour they self-consume.
Away with the solar tax!
Furthermore, all artificial size restrictions must be eliminated instead of introducing new ones. The intended reduction of the tendering limit to 500 kilowatts not only endangers one third of the solar market in Germany, but also deprives the German economy of an essential instrument to reduce its energy costs and thus become competitive and fit for the future - and this at a time when our country is spending billions to guide the German economy through the Covid crisis with as little damage as possible. Therefore: remove market barriers and finally allow photovoltaics to unfold its full potential. (mfo)
Jochen Endle is Director Corporate Communications for Q-Cells in Thalheim.
