PV development policies in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan

As the concept of sustainable development continues to gain popularity in countries around the world, the global solar energy development and utilization scale is rapidly expanding, and technology continues to advance. Many countries regard solar energy as an important emerging energy source. Most countries have successively opened up photovoltaic development policies

PV development policies

①Germany
Germany’s grid-connected subsidies have also been significantly reduced since 2009. Take a residential rooftop project with an installed capacity of 30kW as an example. The grid-connected subsidy price has dropped from a historical high of 0.57 Euro/kW·h in 2004 to 0.12 Euro/kW·h in 2014. This makes residents have to face continuous Increasing tariffs for electricity purchases must face the continued decline in subsidies for self-generation and grid connection. Germany, which has gradually faded out grid-connected electricity price subsidies, has begun to shift its subsidy policy to battery energy storage systems.
The German government supports the photovoltaic industry from many aspects. In terms of law formulation: Germany promulgated and implemented the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) in 2000, and carried out irregular revisions and improvements in conjunction with the actual situation of photovoltaic development. EEG has put forward a clear plan for the construction of renewable energy in Germany. It has determined that the total installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation will reach 51.75 million kW in 2020. The dynamic adjustment is carried out closely around the annual installed capacity, based on the matching degree of the newly installed capacity of the previous year with the annual plan, to determine the on-grid tariff adjustment level for the next year. If the scale of new additions in the previous year exceeds the annual plan, increase the reduction ratio of on-grid tariffs, otherwise appropriately reduce the reduction ratio.
In terms of electricity price subsidies: With the continuous increase of distributed photovoltaic installation capacity, Germany adopts differentiated and decreasing fixed on-grid electricity prices according to the installation location, capacity configuration and technology type of photovoltaic power generation.
In 2014, Germany’s newly revised EEG-2014 came into effect, and it mainly revised and adjusted relevant content such as photovoltaic feed-in tariff subsidy rates and market premium payment models. Compared with EEG -2010, the subsidy content for the “direct marketing” model of photovoltaic facilities has been added. For example, the direct sales subsidy rate of the system with the installed capacity of 40kW is 0.1280 Euro/kw·h: the installed capacity of the 10MW ground-mounted system can obtain 0.092 /kW·h direct sales subsidy rate.
②Switzerland
In 2012, the FIT subsidy (Feed in Tariff, new energy subsidy policy) has been cut three times: the first cut was 8% at the beginning of the year, another 10% cut in March, and another 15% cut in October; the feed-in tariff subsidy was cut in 2013 8%; In 2014, due to the fact that the proposal of the opposing reduction party had a definite effect, the Federal Council announced a change in regulations to allow photovoltaic users to use it spontaneously at the beginning of the year.
At the beginning of January 2015, the Swiss Federal authorities announced that in order to change the feed-in tariff subsidy for photovoltaic power generation in Switzerland, it will gradually reduce the payment of the photovoltaic power feed-in tariff subsidy in two stages, and the one-time payment for systems below 30kW will also be reduced. The subsidy reduction of Ruitu PV began on April 4, 2015. As of October 1, 2015, the subsidy will be reduced by 12% for installation projects exceeding 1MW, and by 18% for systems with a scale of 30kW to 1MW. For systems below 30kW, a 23% reduction will be made, and the new rate will remain until April 1, 2016. This reduction is a market signal that the cost of photovoltaic power generation must continue to be reduced, and the deployment speed must also be increased.
③Japan
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan announced on February 24, 2015 the purchase price plan for renewable energy for 2015 (the fiscal year starting from April 2015). The price per kilowatt-hour does not include tax) will be reduced from 82 yen in 2014 to 27 yen, the largest drop in history. The purchase price of household photovoltaic power generation with an output of less than 10kW will also be reduced to 33~-35 yen from 37 in 2014. The purchase price of industrial and household solar energy has been lowered for the third consecutive year.
The purchase price of residential photovoltaic power generation proposed by the Chairman’s draft in Japan in 2016 is: photovoltaic power generation above 10kW is 29 yen/kW.h for the period from April to June 2015, and for the period from July 2015 to March 2016 It is 27 yen/kW·h for residential photovoltaic power generation systems under 10kW. For Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, and Kansai Electric Power where no output control equipment is required, it is 33 yen/kW.h, and output control must be installed. The jurisdiction of other power companies of the equipment is 35 yen/kW·h.