Solar PV systems generated about 59.9TWh of electricity in 2023, up by about 1% year-on-year, according to a study conducted by German research organisation Fraunhofer Institution for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).
In its Electricity generation in Germany in 2023 report, Fraunhofer ISE said that of the electricity generated by solar PV systems, 53.5TWh was fed into the public grid and 6.4TWh was used for self-consumption.
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For example, a total of 9TWh of electricity was generated in June 2023 – Fraunhofer ISE said that this was the highest monthly solar generation ever achieved in Germany.
Additionally, the maximum solar output of 40.1GW was reached at 13:15 on 7 July, corresponding to 68% of electricity generation.
On the contrary, wind power plants produced about 139.8TWh in 2023 and were approximately 14.1% higher than production in 2022.
The study also included the renewables production in 2023. Last year, renewables produced about 260TWh in 2023, up from the previous year’s level of 242TWh. The share of renewable energies in the electrical load was 57.1% compared to 50.2% in 2022. This share was ranked 14th among 34 European countries.
Fraunhofer ISE also confirmed that 13.2GW of solar PV systems were installed in the first 11 months last year, adding that when all installation data for 2023 become available, final figures for new PV installations in 2023 are expected to be above 14GW, up from 7.4GW in 2022.
PV Tech reported that the German Solar Industry Association (BSW) had announced solar additions for 2023. BSW said that Germany added about 14GW of solar capacity in 2023, with the residential segment accounting for nearly half of the new additions.
Fraunhofer ISE said the additions in 2023 were the first time that PV expansion in Germany had seen double-digit growth.
Aside from solar PV systems, Fraunhofer ISE also studied battery storage systems in the report. The installed battery storage capacity by power (GW) increased by 72.7% from 4.4GW in 2022 to 7.6GW in 2023, while storage capacity (GWh) rose from 6.5GWh to 11.2GWh.
Germany has been ramping up its efforts to install solar PV systems. In June 2023, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) launched a request for expressions of interest (EoI) to boost the country’s solar PV manufacturing supply chain. The target was to build up 10GW of solar PV manufacturing across the value chain – i.e. from silicon to modules – per year, with an annual capacity of at least 2GW for modules alone.