Germany's EEG Reform: Why PV Owners Need to Act Now

The German government is planning a new "grid package" and a sweeping reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). For many private PV owners, what stands in the 300-page draft reads like a shock. Instead of pushing ahead with the grid expansion that is long overdue, the burden is being shifted onto the people who produce solar power. If you are planning a photovoltaic system right now, you need to know the new rules.

"Instead of using the law to make the energy lobby expand the grid, the buck is passed to the people who have no supervisory board seats to hand out: the PV owners."

The three most serious changes in the EEG reform

1. The end of the fixed feed-in tariff

• Direct marketing becomes mandatory: The feed-in tariff that was guaranteed for 20 years disappears. Instead, operators will have to sell their electricity through direct marketers.
• Short transition periods: There are temporary rules with a reduced tariff (around 6 cents/kWh), but they run out quickly. For systems up to 50 kWp the deadline ends in January 2028, for systems up to 25 kWp in January 2029, and for small systems up to 7 kWp in January 2030. After that, direct marketing applies from day one for everyone.
• Marketer margins eat up the profit: Without a subsidy, the fees and profit shares taken by the direct marketers will likely swallow whatever your surplus brings in.

2. The new 50% feed-in cap

Until now you could usually feed in all of your surplus electricity. Under the new law, new PV systems may only put a maximum of 50% of their installed capacity onto the grid. With a 10 kWp system, for example, the cut-off hits at 5 kW of feed-in. If your house or your battery cannot absorb the energy at that moment, the system has to be throttled and the solar power goes to waste.

3. Capacity-limited zones

So that grid operators still do not have to get serious about expanding the grid, they will be allowed to designate so-called "capacity-limited zones". Build a system there and the grid operator can throttle it, or switch it off completely, whenever the grid is congested. In return you get a heavily reduced "redispatch compensation". In the worst case your system's annual yield drops by around 20%, at your own risk.

What does this mean for your PV strategy?

These hurdles will inevitably turn today's solar boom into a slump. In practice, that means:

• Financing gets shaky: Large systems that used to be financed reliably against a secure feed-in tariff lose the basis their numbers were built on.
• Feed-in income falls: Feeding surplus into the grid becomes close to unprofitable for small and mid-sized PV systems.
• A radical focus on self-consumption: The rule for the future is simple: use the electricity you produce yourself.

The 21energy view: make your surplus worth something

This reform makes one thing clear: the market for classic grid feed-in has no future in its current form. If the 50% cap stops you from getting rid of your electricity, or direct marketers dictate your price, one logical route is left: maximize your self-consumption.

Why watch your hard-earned solar energy get curtailed? Smart loads like our Bitcoin heaters turn exactly that otherwise lost energy into heat and into real value. If the grid does not want your electricity, make yourself independent and simply use it yourself.

Want to know what that looks like with your own numbers? Run them through the 21energy PV calculator.