The proposals of Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) to sharply cut subsidies for solar power have drawn sharp criticism from industry groups and the opposition.
“I can only warn against removing the feed‑in tariff for photovoltaic systems on residential roofs as part of the EEG reform” said Ursula Heinen‑Esser, president of the Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie (BEE), to the “Handelsblatt” (Friday edition).
Mira Wenzel, project leader for the energy transition in the electricity sector at the research institute Agora Energiewende, told the same newspaper that an abrupt halt to the feed‑in tariff would make small rooftop PV plants unprofitable and could “wipe out their expansion”.
Carsten Körnig, chief executive of the trade association BSW‑Solar, called the draft a “frontal attack on small solar installations” when speaking to “Der Spiegel”.
Green Party parliamentarians reacted with even stronger language. “Katherina Reiche is nothing more than a solar killer: no more money for solar on your own roof – that is the consequence of these plans” said Katharina Dröge, chair of the Green caucus in the Bundestag.
She added that removing the subsidy will make many private‑home installations unprofitable, depriving homeowners of the opportunity to generate cheap, self‑produced electricity.
Dröge also accused the government of deliberately sabotaging the most popular renewable energy technology. “First, Spahn and Reiche cause a heating‑cost explosion with the new heating‑price law, and now they punish those who have solar panels on their roofs” she said.
“It seems that Frau Reiche now only does politics for big corporations and the fossil lobby – not for ordinary people”.
According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the Federal Ministry of Economics plans to exclude installations on private houses with a capacity of less than 25 kW from any subsidy. Those owners would have to find a buyer for their power before sending it to the grid, a step that grid operators had previously handled automatically.
For very small systems under 7 kW, the plan would soon mandate the installation of smart meters. Roof‑mounted PV plants would also be allowed to feed only half of their output into the grid. The subsidy rate for systems above 25 kW is to be standardized, a move that will likely favor large corporate solar parks such as those operated by E.ON and RWE, which benefit from economies of scale compared with smaller commercial projects.