Germany Adds 117 MW PV In January

• Germany's Network Agency has published that 17.27 MW PV was installed in Germany
• A very small part, around 3.4 MW has come from ground mount installations
• Compared to January 2016 additions of 81.75 MW, the January 2017 figures are a 43% improvement,
• January 2017 numbers are down 73% from December

One of the major solar markets in Europe, Germany has reported new PV capacity registrations of 117.27 MW for the month of January 2017. Out of this capacity, 3.43 MW has come from ground mount systems, according to the Federal Network Agency (BNA). The BNA, however, publishes primarily the registered capacity – in fact, only around 75 MW were grid-connected and registered in December, the rest was brought on-grid in a different month.

Compared to January 2016 additions of 81.75 MW, the January 2017 figures are an improvement of over 43%. But it is a drop of more than 73% from December 2016, when Germany's BNA received registrations for 441 MW of new PV capacity.

The December hike was due to the new Renewable Energy Law (EEG) taking into effect this year, which limits feed-in tariff systems to a capacity of 750 kW. Developers planning larger systems, up to 10 MW, and striving for a 20 year government-backed PPA now need to participate in public PV tenders.

Germany installed 1.45 GW in 2016, basically the same level as the year before, when 1.42 GW was added.