At Germany’s largest PV industry conference, held November 26 to 27, 2024 in Berlin, more than 600 representatives from industry and politics came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of an electricity system that is increasingly dominated by photovoltaics and wind. The general tenor was that we need more flexibility and more storage solutions to relieve the grids and to maximize consumption of electricity from renewable sources in order to counteract the reduction in PV deployment due to systemic shortcomings.
“Flexibility is the new key currency for market design,” said Dr. Simone Peter, President of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE), during the opening panel discussion. The main topics of the conference in Berlin were dynamic electricity tariffs, the rollout of smart meters in Germany and creation of flexible demand through electrolyzers, e-mobility and heat pumps. There was a general consensus on what policymakers and the industry need to do to further promote PV: “We need to prevent price explosions in our grids,” urged Kerstin Andreae, Managing Director of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). According to her, very high grid charges, which lead to very high electricity prices for consumers, are mainly the result of the massive investments in grid expansion and redispatch measures for technical curtailment of renewable power plants. Another hot topic at the Forum Solar PLUS was the economic curtailment of power plants due to negative electricity spot prices, which has become more common in recent years due to the oversupply of solar power during peak generation times. The fact that electricity not fed into the grid is still eligible for feed-in tariffs under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG subsidies) without being consumed is not only irritating to end users, it was also a topic of discussion in Berlin: Should the subsidies be phased out? Should the government take regulatory action? “Negative electricity prices indicate that the market is working as it should. To believe they are a bad thing is counterproductive,” said Tobias Kurth, General Manager and authorized signatory at the Montel Group. He argued for a market-driven rather than a government-driven solution.
When too much solar power meets too little grid capacity, costs explode: Vice Chancellor of Germany and Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck (Alliance 90/The Greens) addressed this issue in his keynote at the Forum Solar PLUS. “We have made electricity clean, now it is time to make it cheap,” he said, praising Germany’s power mix, of which over 50 percent comes from renewable sources. The next milestone for renewables will be flexibilization. However, Habeck rejected an immediate and complete abolition of the EEG subsidies: “Not pulling the plug”.
At the Forum Solar PLUS, participants tried to picture what the upcoming re-elections in Germany and a possible change of government would mean for solar energy, as many industry representatives expect a change in governing parties to result in less political tailwind for the industry. “We had a short and intense ramp-up period for renewables,” said Robert Busch, CEO of the German Association of Energy Market Innovators (bne), praising the outgoing coalition. Still, everyone in Berlin agreed that the energy transition, as well as solar and wind as fundamental energy sources, is a global, unstoppable movement – which is why the industry remains optimistic.
How can solar power be better integrated into the electricity market? To answer this question, there were conference sessions on the topics of hybrid power plants, battery storage systems (storage and needs-based feed-in of PV electricity) and power purchase agreements (PPAs). In terms of prevailing PV business models, the event showed that the market will be increasingly shaped by the private sector. Photovoltaics will increasingly be treated as components of larger systems that combine storage, e-mobility and heat pumps and are controlled via fully digitalized and often AI-based energy management systems. However, the most important takeaway from the Forum Solar PLUS concerned power grids: Grid expansion and digitalization will require patience and cooperation, with grid operators and PV companies working together to unlock untapped potential. Our grids have not been expanded fast enough to keep up with the PV boom of the past few years, so the industry will need to apply a wide range of solutions to address this issue.
The next Forum Solar PLUS will take place from November 18 to 19, 2025 at the bcc Berlin Congress Center.