Germany Signals Shift Away from Feed-in Tariffs for New Rooftop Solar

Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche (CDU) has signaled a potential shift away from feed-in tariffs for new small photovoltaic systems, arguing they are already commercially viable without subsidies. In an interview with Augsburger Allgemeine, she said existing PV plants would retain their guaranteed feed-in tariffs for 20 years (“grandfathering”), citing significantly lower PV system costs as the reason for reassessing support for new installations.

Reiche’s review goes beyond the current tariff degression under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), where rates have been reduced by 1% every six months. New tariffs took effect on August 1, and the next scheduled degression step is February 1, 2026. She also wants PV and wind operators to shoulder a larger share of grid expansion costs and to bring renewables further into the market.

A key element is making PV “feed in intelligently”: Reiche indicated future PV systems should be paired with storage and be controllable, and she wants to open direct marketing to smaller rooftop installations—meaning power would be sold via the market rather than being handled automatically by grid operators, who currently manage marketing and pay the feed-in tariff.

The push comes as the market value of solar power increasingly falls during high-generation periods. With PV capacity rising, more hours of negative wholesale prices have appeared—typically when solar output is high and demand is low—reducing merchant revenues to only a fraction of what guaranteed EEG remuneration provides. The previous government tried to address this with the “Solar Peak Act”: since late February, newly installed PV systems do not receive feed-in tariffs during negative-price periods. A compensation mechanism can extend the support period at the end of the 20-year term, but only under certain conditions—most notably, smart metering. Without smart meters, new PV systems up to 100 kW must cap feed-in at 60%.

Reiche has suggested these measures still don’t go far enough. Even before the completion of her commissioned “reality check” on the energy transition, she has repeatedly emphasized aligning renewable buildout with grid expansion—both of which, she argues, are moving out of sync as grid upgrades and the smart meter rollout remain slow. She said it is no longer acceptable for projects to be built “anywhere” without considering grid constraints, adding that this makes the power system unnecessarily expensive.

To cut costs further, Reiche also wants regulators to end compensation payments to renewable generators when they are curtailed for redispatch reasons—calling the current rules outdated given that around 60% of Germany’s electricity already comes from renewables.