Despite Germany's plan to significantly cut solar subsidies, demand is robust for the world leader in solar installations. German solar photovoltaic installations more than tripled to almost 1,800 megawatts in the first quarter compared to a year ago, according to German Deputy Environment Minister Katherina Reiche, as quoted in Bloomberg.
Cuts of up to 30 percent in the feed-in tariff have had less of an impact on demand than expected.
Shayle Kann, GTM Research Managing Director, sums it up:
"If there is one thing the German market has proven over the past three years, it is resilience in the face of feed-in tariff cuts. While we do expect the Germany market to cool down later this year, installation totals for the first half of 2012, and potentially into Q3, could easily exceed those seen in 2011. The grace period for projects which had applied for grid connection by Feb. 24 is enabling another mini-boom in the German market before the new round of cuts truly takes effect."
Germany installed approximately 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaics in 2011.
Meet Shayle Kann and the rest of GTM Research's solar analyst team at the Solar Summit next week in Phoenix, Arizona. Details here.