Over the next 15 years, if every single-family, semi-detached and terraced house built in Germany is equipped with a rooftop PV system, the country can count on a total of 77 TWh of green electricity to be generated in this period, according to a study by electricity utility E.ON and energy think tank Energy Brainpool.
Analysts believe in 2037 alone, these systems can generate 10.22 TWh to cover the annual electricity requirements of over 4 million average private households in the country. It will enable savings of a total of 40 million tons of carbon emissions and help bring down Germany's dependence on imported electricity, they add.
To arrive at this conclusion, the duo assumed that all these target construction sites will be built on an average at the same rate as they did in the last 6 years even though low interest rates boosted installations in recent years. Of late, the construction boom has slowed down due to high construction and interest rates.
"This period was chosen due to the availability of relevant data from the Federal Statistical Office. A slightly decreasing efficiency over the years was assumed for all PV systems and a slightly increasing output for new systems due to technical progress," stated study writers.
The E.ON study comes in the wake of the European Parliament clearing the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), after the European Commission proposed in in its Solar Strategy to make it mandatory for all new buildings in the bloc to be equipped with solar panels latest by 2028, while existing buildings to be retrofitted till 2032 (see EU Advances Energy Performance Of Buildings Directive). In the trilogy EC, European Parliament and the Council of Ministers the members states now have to find a compromise in the coming months.
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