No solar subsidy cut in Germany in July, data shows
Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:10am EDT
* Total installations reached 700 MW in March-May period
* Brings projection for 2011 installations to 2,800 MW
* Shares in SolarWorld, Q-Cells, Phoenix Solar rise
BERLIN/FRANKFURT, June 16 (Reuters) - Official data from Germany's network regulator shows the cut in incentives for solar power planned for July will be scrapped, pushing up German shares in the sector.
Government and industry sources had told Reuters a day earlier that the volume of new solar panel installations in Germany fell dramatically from March to May, the key period used by the government to determine the level of cuts.
The Federal Grid Agency said a total 700 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic (PV) capacity went online in the March-May period.
Extrapolated by the agency to 2,800 MW for the full year, that falls below the 3,500 MW the German government has identified as the minimum threshold for one-off cuts planned for July in so-called feed-in tariffs -- costs that a utility needs to pay to generators of renewable energy as long as it costs more than conventional forms of energy.
"With the release of the published data, market participants have clarity now," Matthias Kurth, president of the Federal Grid Agency, said in a statement.
"The feed-in tariff levels will not fall for systems that will go online from July 1. This is based on the projection of added capacity of 2,800 MW," he added.
The news takes pressure off producers of solar modules and cells that sell their products in Germany, the world's largest solar market, giving them more time to lower their costs.
At 1142 GMT, shares in German solar companies SolarWorld , Q-Cells , Centrotherm and Phoenix Solar were all up 0.3-3.4 percent.
Feed-in tariffs are the solar sector's lifeblood until they achieve grid parity, the point at which solar power costs the same as fossil-fuel based forms of power. (Reporting by Markus Wacket in Berlin and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Will Waterman)