Germany’s PV Installations Down Sharply in March

In March, Germany added approximately 787.2 MW of new solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, according to data from the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). This figure is lower than the 1,665 MW installed in February and the 1,401 MW recorded in March 2024, marking the lowest monthly performance for the German PV market since December 2022, when 456.5 MW was deployed.

For the first quarter of 2025, Germany’s newly installed PV capacity totaled 3.78 GW, slightly higher than the 3.71 GW added in the same period of 2024. By the end of March, the country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached approximately 104 GW.

During March, around 25,000 new rooftop PV systems, with a combined capacity of 385.5 MW, were installed across Germany. This compares to 540 MW in February and 1,029 MW in January. The decline may be linked to new regulations introduced by the Solarspitzengesetz law, effective from late February. The law states: “New photovoltaic systems will not receive compensation when electricity prices on the spot market are negative.” For systems with smart metering, any downtime is applied after the standard subsidy period ends. Smaller systems under 100 kW without smart meters must cap their feed-in capacity at 60%.

Additionally, the Bundesnetzagentur reported that 100 new solar parks, totaling 280.5 MW, were connected to the grid in March. In contrast, February saw 183 new ground-mounted systems with a combined capacity of 1,105.2 MW. The agency noted: “The number of new installations in this segment varies significantly month to month, with the commissioning of individual large-scale projects greatly influencing the statistics.”