Motivation

Worth knowing about private use of photovoltaic electricity

In case of an investment in a photovoltaic system it is not easy to always do the right thing. In general, thanks to the EEG (German “Renewable Energy Act”), the installation of photovoltaic systems has become economically interesting, when the electricity produced is fed into the public grid and remunerated accordingly.

For all profitability considerations, increased focus is being place on the question of system integration and overall coordination of energy supply at home. From January 1st 2011, the federal government of Germany has set new tariffs for the remuneration of self-produced electricity and a bonus for the electricity directly used in the household – thus not fed into the public grid.

Therefore you have the choice whether to feed the generated electricity into the public grid and benefit from the feed in tariff, or to consume it yourself and take advantage of the own consumption arrangement of the EEG.

In case you decide to consume the electricity produced yourself, following aspects should be considered

• Only the simultaneously produced and consumed electricity is counted as own consumption.

• The price of the reference electricity for a kilowatt hour, and the likely average electricity price increase in the next years.

• Costs for meter rent for the own consumption counter.