Solar Energy: IWR Expects 100,000 MW Of Solar Power in Germany by The End of 2024
Münster, Germany - The use of solar energy in Germany is booming and continues to grow. By the end of August 2024, solar systems with a capacity of more than 10,000 MW had already been installed and commissioned. This is the result of a recent evaluation of data from the Market Master Data Register (MaStR) maintained by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) by the Internationales Wirtschaftsforum Regenerative Energien (IWR).
Solar boom in Germany continues in 2024
According to the IWR, the solar boom in Germany will continue unabated in the current year based on the latest market data. “If the trend continues until the end of 2024, more than one million new solar systems with a capacity of more than 15,000 MW will be installed, as in the previous year,” said IWR CEO Dr. Norbert Allnoch in Münster. In terms of the total photovoltaic capacity installed in Germany, the 100,000 MW mark is still well within reach given the dynamic development of the year to date, according to the IWR forecast.
However, the German government's 2024 expansion target of 88,000 MW (88 GW) of solar capacity in accordance with the expansion path for renewable energies (Section 4 EEG 2023) has already been exceeded ahead of schedule.
International solar market: China eclipses everything in solar expansion
According to the IWR, the international solar market will also continue to gain momentum and reach new record levels of expansion. Allnoch: “Even if solar construction in Germany currently appears high at around 15,000 MW per year, the pace of expansion in China currently eclipses everything on an international level. In the first seven months of 2024 alone, solar installations with a capacity of 123,500 MW were newly installed in China. A record annual expansion of around 250,000 MW of solar capacity is expected in China in 2024. In Germany, total solar capacity has so far reached around 93,200 MW, but it has also taken us 30 years to achieve this.”
Electricity from domestic energy sources: Expansion in 2024 will generate 20 billion kilowatt hours per year
For Germany, the current IWR forecast for 2024 remains unchanged, according to which the new wind and solar capacity connected to the grid in Germany could reach 15,000 to max. 20,000 MW (15 - 20 GW), partly due to the new offshore wind turbines. According to the IWR, the additional annual electricity generation in a single year (2024) from domestic wind and solar expansion alone could reach around 20 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
For comparison: In order to be able to produce this amount of electricity with nuclear power plants, at least two large nuclear power plants would have to be connected to the grid, with construction times of 10 - 15 years per nuclear power plant. The construction of new nuclear power plants would have had to start more than 10 years ago, for example to replace the electricity from coal-fired power plants.
Source: IWR Online, 13 Sep 2024
