For months, Philip Matthias tried to convince his father to install solar panels on their company’s roof in the eastern German state of Thuringia, aiming to cut electricity costs and carbon emissions at the metal products factory.
Initially sceptical of the 2.3-million-euro ($2.5 million) investment, a substantial sum for the medium-sized Tridelta, his father crunched the numbers and decided to nearly double the project capacity, opting to install photovoltaic modules that could power around 900 households in addition to the factory.
“The PV systems amortize after about 7-1/2 years. The manufacturer gives a guarantee of 20 years. That means this is an extremely lucrative investment,” Matthias said. Since the war in Ukraine and the sudden drop in Russia fossil fuel exports to Germany, Berlin has introduced laws to accelerate solar power expansion, part of its plan to cover 80% of the country’s energy from renewables by 2030.
Encouraged by a feed-in tariff providing a guaranteed price to renewable energy producers selling their power, as well as reduced solar panel costs, German companies are increasingly turning to solar to get around high energy costs. Although Germany has Europe’s biggest capacity for solar and wind power generation, its small and medium-sized companies have yet to benefit from lower electricity prices because of high grid fees and taxes they must pay. By generating their own solar power, they avoid those fees and taxes.
Companies consumed around 69% of Germany’s national electricity in 2023, data by the BDEW utilities association showed. “As electricity prices in Germany show no signs of decreasing as previously anticipated, companies are increasingly recognising the economic viability of installing solar panels,” said Marie-Theres Husken, an energy expert for the BVMW association for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Newly installed photovoltaic capacity on business rooftops rose by 81% year-on-year in the first four months of the year, outpacing the 1% growth in the residential sector, data by the BSW solar power association shows. A May survey by pollster YouGov showed more than half of German companies with suitable roofs planned to install solar power systems in the next three years. BVMW forecasts that nearly all manufacturing companies in Germany will use solar energy by 2030.
In response to increasing demand, Germany’s largest residential solar power developer, Enpal, said in April it was expanding into the commercial sector. “The demand was not as instant… but the growth is going to be very sustainable,” said Melchior Schulze Brock, CEO of commercial and industrial solar startup Enviria.
An April study by the Freiburg-based Institute for Applied Ecology showed there was potential to install up to 287 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity, more than enough to meet Berlin’s 2030 target of 215 GW, along German roads, railways, parking lots, and industrial areas.
