Photovoltaic funding: The abolition would be the support-gau 2.0

Everyone makes mistakes, can too. That makes us all so human. But it is not for nothing that anyone who makes the same mistake twice has apparently not learned anything from the first time. One can now accuse Minister of Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche: she announced that the funding for private photovoltaic systems had to be deleted. Because the photovoltaic roof systems have already been expected without the previously guaranteed feed-in tariff. In addition, the power grid expansion is important to her, which should not be more expensive.

This statement is one -to -one The new edition of the announcement that the new government will abolish the promotion of heating.

Oh exactly, and hadn’t the previous government stamped some KfW funding shortly before or made them unpredictable and thus made the conditions in the energy renovation unpredictable? What followed from this is now clear: the renovation numbers in the existing stock have been completely broken. The market of heat pumps was almost quiet. And the new building was even less ahead because no property developer was able to estimate the construction and system costs. For a year and a half, the industry of builders and renovators has been laving the next to the next. Although an economist is a truism: Uncertainty is poison for the economy. And also for growth.

The private homeowners reacted promptly to the heating conveyor chaos: First they fell into shock and finally tried to take funding with them as long as possible. This is currently leading to a heat pumping economy, but nobody knows how long it will last. The same could come about in the solar systems. The photovoltaic plans for the Bundestag had already shrunk massively, they had only recovered at the previous year’s level again in July. If the feed -in tariff were really cut, many private homeowners should do without the construction of new facilities. Although they are supposedly so economical.

Here the Minister of Economy forgets two important things: First of all, there is no real support for solar systems. At least not in the sense that property owners would be helped with the purchase. If someone has to take out a loan to buy a single-family house complex costs around 20,000 euros, they get a KfW loan, but its interest rate is not really cheap with around 3.25 percent. For the conditions, you currently get a loan from the house bank. In the vast majority of cases, if you pay the photovoltaic system in cash, you will not receive any grants because many municipalities and countries have re-stamped their funding programs. Buyers only receive the VAT, but pay the full system price.

Second, the company only pays off on the saved electricity consumption – and therefore only for homeowners and self -consumers. Mostly over a period of around 20 years. But how do you get all the apartment building owners and landlords to also equip their real estate with photovoltaic systems? Right by granting them any kind of remuneration so that they take the investment at all – if only the tenant benefits from electricity production, but not the homeowner himself. So far, the feed -in tariff has so far been at least a small incentive. A reward for those phases in which the system produces more electricity than the house residents remove the consumption.

Now you can discuss how useful a 20 -year -old feed -in tariff is at all. You could do without them if you paid a much more sensible one-time photovoltaic installation bonus instead. It would certainly motivate just as many people, if not more. Austria is currently proving this impressively: Since the funding pot for solar systems was increased there, the number of photovoltaic applications promptly quadrupled.

Of course, you can criticize that the stream of the many small facilities flows into the network of all places when it is least used – on sundays, at noon. But can you really accuse the private individuals who lie on the roof at all at their own expense? If you are clever and have enough money, you will stand a battery memory in the basement anyway – but with that, the investment increases to around 30,000 euros for a home. The memory significantly enlarges the electricity auction, to around 70 percent. So much less electricity from the supplier for a good 30 cents per kilowatt must be bought. This brings the plant operator considerably more than the clear feed -in tariff of almost 8 cents.

But honestly: Wouldn’t the network operators and municipal utilities be asked here to finally build more large storage tank in order to browse the top load? After all, they could later resell the masses of cheap, which are cheaply bought, three to four times more expensive. Or distribute the electricity better and more efficiently over smart meters? Or pump it in electric cars. Of course, many of them work on such solutions, but by no means fast enough. Because the economy cannot be forced, the regulation once again starts with private individuals.

To put it bluntly: Finally, private households produce mass electricity masses because they start their own expense at their own expense. With the current extension, Germany could actually adhere to its photovoltaic high-class plans for 2030. But because the large companies are planning the upgrades of their facilities too comfortably, the minister threatens to capture the current of electricity instead of finally making legs and creating more memory. Doesn’t that sound abundant?

A look at Austria: There have been energy sharing with the neighborhood since 2017, and since 2021, also across property boundaries. That means: a house produces electricity via photovoltaics, and several other houses are tuned in as a power buyer. You also want to introduce this country. The previous government also wanted that. When does the law come? With luck in mid -2026. But maybe the rules will be changed again.