Germany agrees on future of renewables by approving the Renewable Energy Act (EEG 2016)

Germany is switching to auctions for renewables

The EEG 2016 is the key instrument to achieve to increase the share of renewables by 40% to 45% by 2025. Switching to auctions will create more competition and guarantee a continuous expansion with effective control of costs and at the same time allowing a variety of participants and integration with network expansion.
Installations that can be entered into the auctions are ground-mounted or rooftop installations, larger than 750 KW. PV systems shall be mainly installed near roads and railways, while their installation on arable land and conservation areas is limited. There will be three auctions per year.

The deployment corridor for photovoltaics installations plans a total additional capacity of around 2.5 gigawatt (GW) per year. The annual capacity volume to be auctioned is 600 MW – the remaining PV additions will come from smaller installations that are not participating in auctions. Feed-in tariffs for these installations will be capped once a total capacity of 52 GW is reached.

For energy self-consumption project a levy of 2,05 €ct/kWh is going to be introduced. Excluded from the levy are only residential projects <10 kWp.
By introducing the new EEG Germany established the coordinates for the next phase of the energy transition.