General Framework
The reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases is an important goal of environmental
policies in Germany. The Federal Government explicitly formulated the target of
doubling the share of renewable energies in gross energy consumption from 2000
until 2010. Accordingly, for the electricity production an increase from 6,3 %
(2000) to 12,5 % (2010) is expected. In the meantime, a first analysis carried
out in spring 2003 shows that a share of roughly 8 % in electricity production
has been reached.
While currently photovoltaic (PV) does not significantly contribute to this development – despite its strong growth rates - it is expected that PV will do so in the long term. Therefore, research and development as well as market introduction of PV are supported from several sides, especially the Federal Government, the Federal States, local authorities and utilities.
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National Programme
The responsibility for renewable energies within the German Federal Government is with the Federal Ministry of Environment (BMU). Research and Development (R&D) is conducted under the 4th Programme on Energy Research and Energy Technology. The main parts of this programme are managed by the Project Management Organisation PTJ.
In 2003, federal support for R&D on PV amounted to about
29,7 MEUR shared by 141 projects in total. The distribution of the budget shows that funding is concentrated on silicon technologies (see Fig. 1). In doing so, long-term options and activities to create a technological basis for small and medium enterprises play a major role.
From January 1999 until end of 2003 the so called, “100 000
Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme,” provided soft loans for the installation of grid connected PV systems. Designed for the support of 300 MW, it turned out that at the end of 2003, approximately 65 700 systems with a total capacity of 347,5 MW were granted. Overall, this marks a clear success of the programme.
In addition to the “100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme,” the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) works guaranteeing a favourable feed in tariff. With the background of the termination of the “100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme,” at the end of 2003, it was decided to adjust the EEG feed in tariff for PV: From 2004 on, there will be a basic tariff of 0,457 EUR / kWh. On top of this, there will be a bonus for small systems and building integration. For example, for systems smaller than 30 kW on buildings, there will be a bonus of 0,117 EUR / kWh; resulting in a net feed in tariff of 0,574 EUR/kWh. As before, these rates will decease by 5 % annually for newly installed systems.
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Research, Development and Demonstration
- Overview
As part of the 4th Federal Programme on Energy Research and
Energy Technology the so-called, "Way Paving Programme
Photovoltaic 2005," with a time horizon of ten years has been
formulated. Three main goals are set:
- Cost-reduction for PV-cells and modules by decreasing production costs and by increasing cell and module efficiencies.
- Cost-reduction, technical optimization and removing of other obstacles which prevent the use of PV in different types of
buildings.
- PV for decentralized, grid-independent electricity supply.
In addition to this initiative, there are other sources for the support of R&D: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) conducts a programme aiming for the support of renewable energies related networks. Moreover, the funding of renewable energies at national institutes is partly covered by their institutional funding provided by the Federal Government and the Federal States. Finally, some of the Federal States carry out their own R&D programmes. The following outline will only concentrate on the Way Paving Programme Photovoltaic 2005, described above.
- Research and Development
The following describe selected topics of important R&D-activities which were started in 2003. Most of these projects are co-operative R&D projects where industry and research institutes collaborate.
Crystalline silicon is still the most important material for
manufacturing solar cells. Currently, emphasis is put onto efficient manufacturing techniques. Therefore, in 2003 some projects directly related to new production concepts of silicon wafers and cells were realized:
- NEON – methods to fabricate thin multicrystalline silicon
wafers which have a large area of 200 x 200 mm 2 ,
- PLATON – plasma technologies for dry surface structuring
of multicrystalline solar cells,
- INKA – cheap inline processes for metal contacts of high
efficiency silicon solar cells.
One important aim is to strengthen technological oriented small and medium sized companies and by this to create a productive supply industry.
Thin Film Technologies have the potential to combine low material and energy consumption with simple process technologies resulting in a cost-effective large area production. Today, several materials are used and numerous cell concepts with different maturity exist. One important project set out in 2003 deals with the development of a textured TCO (transparent conductive oxide) for thin film PV especially amorphous silicon.
In order to evaluate new technologies and new cell concepts,
a project on organic solar cells was initiated. The long term target is the production of cost efficient large area solar cells by using an industrial organic vapour phase deposition process.
While the R&D on the integration of decentralized small power
systems connected to the public grid as well as the evaluation of PV-systems (carried out under Task 2 of the IEA-PVPS programme) are continued, a new activity deals with off grid systems. Within the UESP – Project (see www.uesp.de), a flexible, reliable and cost effective solution for the management of autonomous power supply systems based on distributed intelligence and standardization will be developed.
- Demonstration
Today, the EEG together with the “100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme,” are the driving forces for the development of the German PV market. Consequently, demonstration projects play a minor role within the current R,D&D-programme.
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Implementation
In the last years, Germany has executed important programmes in the field of PV
which have triggered remarkable results in market development and technology progress.
Complementary to the R,D&D-programme, the following measures in the area of market
introduction have been established:
- The "Electricity Feed Law" introduced in 1991 was replaced by the “Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG)” in April 2000. The new law rules the input and favourable payment of electricity from renewable energies by the utilities. For PV systems built in 2003 a feed in tariff of 0,46 EUR per each kWh fed into the grid is guaranteed for an operation period of 20 years.
- From January 1999 until the end of 2003 the Federal Government executed the “100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme.” With a total granted capacity of 347,5 MW, this soft loan programme is a real success story. In 2003 alone, approximately 148 MW were approved (see Fig. 2).
- Moreover, together with other renewable energies like solar-thermal, heat pumps, hydropower, geothermal energy and biomass the PV initiative, “Sun at School”. is part of a federally marked introduction programme which provides soft loans or subsidies. From 2000 until mid 2003, approximately 535 PV systems for educational purposes were supported.
- Some of the Federal States (Länder) have defined their own programmes, mainly to support the application of renewable energy and energy conservation.
- The Federal German Environmental Foundation (DBU) supports development and demonstration in the fields of renewable energy sources and energy conservation.
- A number of utilities have launched initiatives to build PV-demonstration and pilot systems or to provide advice and
information. In a growing number of cases, financial support for the rational use of energy and for renewable energies is provided. Cost-effective payments for every kWh of energy fed into the public grid from PV and other renewable energy systems is offered by some utilities belonging to cities and communities.
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Industry Status
Due to the German 100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme and the EEG, the German PV-industry has experienced a period of strong growth over the last three years. The German capacity in solar cell production has grown from 12 MW in the year 2000 up to a level of 100 MW in 2003 and a volume of 165 MW in 2004, is to be expected. The share in the worldwide production capacity has risen during this period from 4,2 % to 16,5 %. Therefore, Germany is the strongest market for PV energy in Europe, with a yearly demand of approximately 125 MW in 2003 and an expected demand of 165 MW in 2004. The German market share in Europe amounts to more than 80 %.
The range of industries supporting photovoltaic power generation is expanding along the whole value chain. In the last 4 years, equipment and production companies became the most experienced ones beside Japan. Thus, the PV-industry influenced and gave new impact to suppliers of feedstock for PV-cells, manufacturers of production equipment, of PV-components and power systems, housing constructors and other products necessary to install PV-systems.
The crystalline silicon technology has dominated the market
in the last 4 years and there is no doubt that this technology
will also be dominant during the next couple of years.
The market share of different solar cell technologies worldwide is shown in table 1, emphasizing the champion to be crystalline silicon with more than 92 %.
German PV-companies are represented in all fields of technology;
having RWE Schott Solar in ribbon and sheet production using the EFG-technology,
as well as Würth Solar and Shell Solar producing CiS-modules in pilot plants.
The main players in the field of crystalline PV-business in Germany entering into the production chain are:
- Wacker; with a clear commitment to produce silicon for wafer production companies in an amount of 2 000 t per annum out of the existing capacity and being in a position to increase capacities if the market growth proves to be reliable and prices adequate. Besides this business, Wacker is developing a new route for granular solar grade silicon by decomposing Trichlorsilane in a fluid bed reactor, thus reducing cost by using less energy and reaching a higher
output per volume during the decomposition. Apart from Wacker,
there is a JV between Degussa and SolarWorld which is looking for a better technology for Silan decomposition to reduce the cost of solar grade feedstock and increase capacities, while the demand for silicon is growing.
- In 2003, the wafer production capacities were increased to 120 MW on mono- and multicrystalline wafers, beside a 7 MW increase of EFG-Si-ribbon produced by RWE Schott Solar. The main producer of multi- and monocrystalline wafers is Deutsche Solar; with a 78 MW production in 2003 and a capacity of more than 100 MW in 2004.
- Since PV Crystalox is not disclosing their production capacity, it has been estimated at 30 MW in 2003. AS Industries, a newcomer, producing monocrystals and wafers at Arnstadt, started the wafer business with estimated 5 MW.
- Cell production in Germany was boosted, nearly doubling to
100 MW from 58 MW the year before. The production capacities
of the six players: Deutsche Cell, ErSol Solar Energy, Q-Cells, RWE Schott Solar, Shell Solar and Sunways are still increasing and could reach 165 MW in 2004, if the announced investments are realized.
- The biggest jumps in production were made by Deutsche Cell
to 17 MW from 2 MW in the year before, also Q-Cells and RWE
Schott Solar increased their capacities with new production lines.
- Module production in 2003 was increased to 80 MW from 40 MW the year before and the involved companies announced another
doubling to 160 MW in 2004. Companies with a production of more than 5 MW are: RWE Schott Solar, SMD (SolarManufaktur
Deutschland), Solara, Solarfabrik, Solar Factory, Solarwatt Solar Systeme and Solon.
- There are another 18 companies running production lines with small scale capacities or special products; for example, for the automobile industry or boat-energy supply.
In 2003, the marketing of 2 to 4 kW residential PV-systems expanded to 80 MW. A dozen of larger companies are creating the markets for PV-systems also in the sectors of public facilities and commercial buildings, standardizations of PV-systems of 10 to 500 kW scale and the development of novel type PV-systems is being promoted.
SolarWorld, for instance, has developed a roof integrated PV-system certified by the German TÜV, that is reducing the cost of PV-systems by saving classical roofing tiles.
The inverter industry has created new systems with higher reliability and efficiency. In particular, SMA and Sunways are the leading companies in producing this equipment.
The strong demand for all PV-systems in Germany will lead to a market of more than 1 Billion Euro including exports of silicon, wafers, cells, modules, components and whole systems. This turnover is equivalent to more than 20.000 jobs and shows the growing importance of renewable energy, especially photovoltaic, for the German economy.
Some of last year’s highlights are summarized below (data based on companies’ communiqués):
- In spring 2003, the first production line of RWE Schott Solar’s SmartSolarFab™ went into full operation. Until end of 2004, a capacity of 60 MW solar cells based on the EFG film technology will be realized. This engagement results in a creation of 400 additional labour places.
- SOLON AG, a producer of PV modules, opened a new production line in May. In 2003, the production of 11 MW modules is
expected. SOLON AG employs 100 workers.
- Q-Cells opened a new cell production line in October and by that, doubled its production capacity to 48 MW annually. 200 labour places were created within the last 3 years.
- In October, Shell Solar increased its cell production capacity in Gelsenkirchen from 10 to 25 MW when opening the second pilot production line (see fig. 3). Upon achieving full production, 55 co-workers will be employed. This second line is an important step towards a 100 MW production capacity in Gelsenkirchen.
- In November, Solar Factory, a 100 % subsidiary of Solar World AG started operation. PV modules are manufactured using full automatic production equipment. In total, the Solar World group employs 500 people in Freiberg in the areas of wafer, cell and module production.
- Until January 2004, ErSol Solar Energy is going to double its cell production capacity to 25 MW annually. By doing so, the number of employees will rise from 100 to 120.
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Market Development incentives
The programmes described above have significantly accelerated the installation of PV-systems in Germany significantly. Following a first estimate there could be roughly 385 MWp on the grid at the end of 2003. In addition to the market of grid connected systems, there is an increasing demand for stand alone systems used; for example, for repeater stations along motorways.
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Future Outlook
With the termination of the “100 000 Rooftops Solar Electricity Programme” at the end of 2003, the EEG was adjusted accordingly. Connected with those increased feed in tariffs, there is the hope for a steady growth of PV markets in the future.
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Further reading about Germany
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