By Kari Williamson

Depending on the location and size of the system, solar PV operators will receive between €0.1794/kWh and €0.2443/kWh for electricity fed into the network for installations commencing operation from 1 January 2012.

"We have recorded an increase in capacity of around 5200 MW in the last 12 months. This means that tariff payments for PV installations which start operation from 1 January 2012 will be 15% lower than the current rate,” says Bundesnetzagentur President Matthias Kurth.

“The increase of 5200 MW is significantly less than the 7800 MW we recorded in the comparable period between October 2009 and September 2010. The flexible cap system, which aims to limit the costs of photovoltaic expansion, has certainly contributed to this development."

Between 1 October 2010 and 30 September 2011, the Bundesnetzagentur recorded an increase in solar PV installations above the statutory threshold of 4.5 GW. Feed-in tariffs will therefore decrease by a further 6 percentage points from 1 January 2012, a reduction of 15% in total.

This would have increased to 18% had the threshold of 5.5 GW been exceeded, and a maximum reduction of 24% would have occurred if the value had been above 7.5 GW.

For the 2011 calendar year there was an increase of around 3.4 GW. There are no estimates for the figures for October to December 2011 yet.