The German government has approved on January a new solar tax, becoming the first European nation to charge owners of renewable energy plants for their own use of electricity, as part of Merkel’s plan to contain rising power bills. The changes would affect photovoltaics and are now partly being reported as a new retroactive solar tax. The cabinet is expected to officially sign off on the draft law in April before it goes to the Bundestag, which is expected to vote on it in June and could become law on August.
The levy will only apply to new rooftop installations above 10kWp fitted from August this year, while individuals using their own solar generated electricity will be required to pay a €0.044kWh charge. Self-consumers with up to 10 kWp PV capacity would be exempted from the tax but they only make up 17% of new self-consumers. The solar industry says such a payment would curb investments in the technology in the nation that has the most installations of photovoltaics in the world.Currently, German households are now paying more for electricity than any other nation in the European Union except for Denmark, and its power bills increased 18 percent to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour this year. BSW-Solar is calling on the government to abandon that plan, warning that the country's energy transition would otherwise endure serious damage. According to Günther Häckl, president of the country’s solar trade group BSW-Solar, compared the situation to taxing people for the food they grow in their garden with the purpose of subsidize farmers. Spain is also working on a similar plan to ensure small solar power generators, which reduce total grid users, help pay for network costs. There are also some U.S. states which are also considering charges for solar rooftop owners.
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