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Germany’s Official 2023 Solar Installations Exceed 14 GW

Annual Deployment Doubled Even Though December 2023 Additions Were Lowest For Any Month Last Year

Anu Bhambhani
  • Bundesnetzagentur has officially shared annual solar installation numbers for solar PV in Germany 
  • The 14.26 GW of installed capacity for the year doubled from the 7.2 GW the country added in 2022, making it the largest annual installed capacity in the last 6 years 
  • The 880 MW installed in December 2023 was its lowest monthly addition last year 

After 9 consecutive months of installing over 1 GW of solar PV capacity, German installations slowed down to 880 MW in the month of December 2023, as per current deployment data from Bundesnetzagentur. Yet, its total of 14.26 GW is its highest annual capacity ever and twice the level installed in 2022, beating the 9 GW 2023 target of the government significantly.

Against the 1.585 GW required monthly for the country to achieve the targeted 215 GW capacity by 2030, the highest monthly addition was reported in July 2023 with 1.43 GW (see Germany Installed 1.18 GW New Solar In Nov 2023). At the end of December 2023, Germany's total installed solar PV capacity reached 81.82 GW. 

Monthly solar PV installations in December 2023 in Germany declined to under 1 GW after several months of GW-scale additions, according to Bundesnetzagentur. (Photo Credit: Bundesnetzagentur)

The 880 MW installed in December is the lowest deployment rate for any month last year. Of this, 422.2 MW was contributed by rooftop solar energy projects with EEG funding, and 190.9 MW by ground-mounted projects tendered under the EEG regime.  

A total of 21.2 MW capacity was decommissioned with 5,993 systems disconnected during 2023.  

German solar energy association BSW Solar earlier shared that out of 14 GW, 7 GW of capacity came from the residential solar segment, followed by 4.3 GW from ground-mounted solar parks and 2.5 GW from the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment. Plug-in balcony solar systems were also popular. It expects demand for solar to remain high in 2024 (see Germany Exits 2023 With Around 14 GW New PV).