Germany Installed 228.8 MW Solar PV In May 2019

• Germany solar PV installations during May 2019 added up to 228.8 MW, according to the country's Federal Network Agency or Bundesnetzagentur
• This is the lowest PV addition since the beginning of the year, even though it is higher than 194 MW installed a year back
• Fraunhofer ISE shares in June 2019, solar was the strongest source of energy generation in Germany feeding 7.17 TWh into the grid

After German solar PV installations started with a bang beginning January 2019 with over half a GW installed in one month, the huge excitement is somewhat fizzling out or so it seems. In the month of May 2019, new solar PV installations dropped down to 228.8 MW, according to the latest data published by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur).

Even though the number for May 2019 is higher than the 194 MW added a year back, it is the lowest Europe's largest solar market has reported since January 2019 (see Germany Adds 194 MW In May 2018). In April 2019, the installations were previously calculated to be 304.67 MW, but now the agency has revised it downward to 293.9 MW (see Germany Installed 304 MW PV In April 2019).

Between January and May 2019, solar PV capacity addition reached over 1.79 GW. However, in case Germany added the May amount in each of the coming months, a total of 3.4 GW would be installed in 2019 – quite a bit more than the 3 GW installed in 2018. On top, there is a number of PPA/merchant solar projects in the planning,

However, also the auction activity in Germany shows high demand – solar tenders are oversubscribed and also winning over wind power. In the 3^rd solar PV auction of 2019, the agency selected 14 projects with 205 MW capacity in total as against the original 150 MW offered (see Germany Awards 205 MW PV In 3^rd PV Auction Of 2019).

The cumulative solar power capacity of Germany at the end of May 2019 reached 47.72 GW. According to Fraunhofer ISE, during H1/2019, solar and wind energy plants together fed around 92.6 TWh of clean energy into the German power grid. They not only increased their share from 80.1 TWh reported in H1/2018, but also generated more electricity than lignite and coal together, which provided 79.4 TWh. In fact, in June 2019, solar energy generated 7.17 TWh of power and for the 1^st time it was able to claim the title of the 'strongest energy source of the month,' ahead of lignite with 7.02 TWh and wind with 6.59 TWh.

Detailed numbers by Fraunhofer ISE are available on its website.