German residential battery storage scheme signs up 4,000 homes

CleanTechnica

It’s been just a year since Germany began offering a subsidy for residential lithium-ion battery storage systems. In that time, already more than 4,000 new solar+battery systems have been installed.

The figures — which show the subsidy to be a success — were recently released by Germany’s Federal Solar Industry Association (BSW Solar).

Along with the figures, BSW Solar also noted that it expects demand to climb even higher this year. Other interesting stats include the fact that nearly €66 million (US$90.82 million) in low-interest loans were distributed by the development bank over the course of the year, and that about €10 million (US$13.76 million) was given out in grants.

According to the association’s managing director, Jorg Mayer, the primary reason for the high demand is that people were increasingly “looking to become independent of fossil fuels and to bring investments in their homes in line with Germany’s wider energy transition (‘Energiewende’).”

Mayer also notes that it is possible to get subsidies for a retrofit of an existing system, just that the PV system needs to have been installed after December 2012.

In related news, Germany just recently hit a nearly 75% renewable power market share (a new record). This happened on May, 11, 2014, right around noon — to be exact.

While that milestone is, on its own, quite notable, another, perhaps more important, milestone was also hit recently — during the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy supplied 27% of Germany’s total electrical demand. Big numbers. And ones that will continue to grow as the country continues pursuing its renewable energy goals.

Source: CleanTechnica. Reproduced with permission.