Market development of PV storage solutions in Germany
There was hardly any awareness of storage systems in the German market until the introduction of a federal subsidy program for the usage of home storage systems in 2013. In the beginning the new technology was met with scepticism from various market players; however, the federal subsidy program was able to slightly compensate the high price level for end customers. After around 5,000 storage installations in 2013, the installation numbers in the German market almost doubled in the years to come, so that by the end of 2015 a total of approximately 30.000 storage systems had been installed.
This market development was initially carried by the first subsidy program, which expired at the end of 2015. More or less every second storage system was installed with the help of the federal subsidy system during this period.
After a phase of uncertainty, a second federal subsidy program was initiated in March of 2016, to accompany the development of storage solutions for small roof-top systems until the end of 2018. When taking the current market development into account, the subsidy budget of 10 million euros per year was too limited to offer sufficient market stimulation in 2016 and the following years. For the first time, the subsidy budget for the whole year, was used up too early, by the fall of 2016,.
