Solarwatt market study 2023 shows: 84% of German homeowners rely on photovoltaics

One third of homeowners plan to install in the next twelve months
High electricity prices fuel demand for cheap solar energy
Online survey of 1,000 people - representative survey by age and gender

Germany is increasingly becoming a solar country: this is shown by the Solarwatt Market Study 2023, which the Hamburg-based opinion research institute Appinio conducted in March on behalf of the leading photovoltaic provider. According to the study, 84 percent of homeowners in Germany already have their own photovoltaic system or want to purchase one to generate clean solar energy. Solarwatt conducted the market study for the second time this year after 2022. For the representative survey by age and gender, a total of 1,000 German homeowners were surveyed online in the period from 7 to 14 March 2023.

One third of homeowners plan solar installation in the next twelve months

Just under a third of homeowners who do not currently use solar power are even planning to install a system in the next twelve months (31.8 percent). In the context of the first Solarwatt market study in March 2022, around 25 percent of those surveyed still stated that they wanted to install their own photovoltaic system in the next twelve months. A photovoltaic system (18.2 percent) is already installed in around one fifth of single-family homes in Germany. In 2022, the share was still 14.6 percent, which corresponds to an increase of only 3.6 percent in the past twelve months.

The Solarwatt Market Study 2023 also shows that the main motive for German homeowners to buy a photovoltaic system is currently the potential to save on energy costs (68.2 percent), followed by the desire for more independence from the energy market (61.8 percent) and the desire to do something good for the environment (43.8 percent). "A ten-kilowatt-peak solar system consisting of durable glass-glass solar modules generates clean energy for around ten cents per kilowatt hour from the moment it is installed - and for more than thirty years," explains Solarwatt managing director Detlef Neuhaus. With such a system, homeowners could save tens of thousands of euros over the entire period.

Solar expansion: industry, politics and investors join forces

According to Neuhaus, the Solarwatt Market Study 2023 confirms the population's sustained desire for solar power: "The use of a solar system makes absolute sense for homeowners from an economic and ecological perspective. Moreover, the technology is now fully mature. But if we want to keep and build up the added value here in Germany and Europe in the future, we need a solidarity between industry, politics and investors. Only in this way can we establish a strong solar industry on the old continent in the long term." Solarwatt is one of the pioneers and innovation drivers of the European solar industry with 30 years of experience. In the meantime, every fifth solar system up to ten kilowatt peak in Germany comes from Solarwatt.

Source: Solarwatt-PM from 03.04.2023

Keywords: DE-News, Renewable, PV

ifeu brief report "Social climate protection in rented flats"

Published 23 September 2019

ifeu short report "Social climate protection in rented housing

The BUND and the ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research have produced various studies on building issues in the last 10 years, including "13 measures against energy waste in the boiler room".

This study now deals with the core issue of cost allocation for energy modernisation in rented buildings. As early as 2012, BUND, the German Tenants' Association (Deutscher Mieterbund) and the German League for Nature Conservation (Deutscher Naturschutzring) presented the basic idea of the so-called "one-third model". Costs and benefits should be shared between tenants, landlords and the state in as balanced a way as possible. This was and is linked to the premise of achieving a rent-neutral apportionment. In addition, disputes about the amount of the apportionment and the division according to maintenance and modernisation costs should be avoided or circumvented.

This study presents the basic features of the one-third model, but includes other factors that play a role in the modernisation levy, such as rent losses, property taxes or residual values in a specially developed calculation model. The calculations also take into account the different situations of private landlords and housing associations as well as different housing market situations such as growing, shrinking and constant housing markets.

Based on the model calculations, the following changes in tenancy law are proposed to implement the ideas of the one-third model:

Targeted support measures

Increase the subsidy for efficiency houses 55 to 40 %.
Increase the grant for individual measures to 30 %.
Elimination of the EH 85, 100 and 115 efficiency house incentives.
Abolition of subsidies for fossil heating systems.

hardship interception

If an energy modernisation causes unreasonable hardship for tenants, the resulting rent increase is paid from public funds.

Amount of the modernisation levy

Subsidies no longer have to be deducted from the investment sum to be apportioned, but benefit the landlords directly.
The modernisation levy will fall from 8 % to up to 1.5 %. Since the reference value is changed, this corresponds to approx. 3 % in the current system.

The changes can only be introduced as a package. This is the only way to achieve the desired effect, namely to meet the climate protection targets and to balance the costs between the actors.

The basic idea of the one-third model, a fairer distribution of costs for all parties, can be applied to all cases examined. The desired result, the resolution of the apparent contradiction between climate protection and social security, is achieved for the various actors. Although public budgets share more than one third of the modernisation costs, they benefit to a greater extent from the economic advantages of energy efficiency.

BUND expects that an amendment to the tenancy law will implement the one-third model and that this can be supported by all participating agencies and associations. It would be a concrete contribution to integrate and implement the much-vaunted social component in climate protection measures. In this way, a higher level of acceptance for the urgently needed energy modernisation will be achieved - the rental housing stock will thus make its indispensable contribution to climate protection. The preservation of the building fabric will benefit just as much as the quality of living, if the living comfort is increased through proper energy modernisation.

To the short report

Source: News Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND), September 2019

Keywords:
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