Recently I was asked by a journalist about the prospect of plug in PV in Germany. I replied: Let me refer you to a study by Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin:
„The market for plug-in solar devices is developing dynamically. However, reliable data on the market structure and market volume have not been available until now. With a survey among the suppliers of plug-in solar devices in Germany and an analysis based on it, this study shows the supplier structure for the first time. It also provides a reliable projection of the market and gives insights into the usage preferences for plug-in solar devices as well as opportunities and obstacles from the suppliers‘ point of view. (…)
– 62 percent of surveyed providers did not begin selling plug-in solar until 2019 or later. (…)
– most common type of application, at 44 percent, is elevation, for example on flat roofs or in gardens, and only the second most common application, at 29 percent, is the balcony.
– According to the survey, the Schuko plug has established itself as the standard plug connection – 77 percent use it”
You find more information on the Schuko Plug: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko
„With an extrapolation based on the data obtained, it was possible to determine for the first time that between 140,000 and 190,000 plug-in solar devices would have been sold to end customers in Germany by the end of 2021. This corresponds to an output of 59 megawatts to 66 megawatts. The number of devices sold by the suppliers in the survey has also almost doubled in 2021 compared to the previous year.”
See: https://solar.htw-berlin.de/studien/marktstudie-steckersolar-2022/
According to antother study there is a claim that maybe 50% of the devices are registered:
„Interested parties also frequently do not plan any or only partial registration. In the survey, one third of the users stated that they would act in accordance with the requirements. Some of the users register either with the grid operator or in the market master data register. Just under half operate their plug-in solar device incognito. The reasons given were ignorance of one’s own obligations, no advantages from registration, the complexity of the work involved, or the negative attitude of the grid operators.“ See https://solar.htw-berlin.de/studien/nutzung-steckersolar-2022/
Let me ad from my experience here in the Association:
I started in 2018, when it was nice toppic and people made fun about you. Then it became serious in 2019 because a lot of intellectual work was done. Then the pandemic came, there was growth but it this all lead to an explosion after February. We have been literally bombed by calls and requests, give around one big media interview per week (usually 2-3 hours).
Also membership has gone up and we are having about one event every two weeks.
So I’m sorry I can’t give you really any charts. But one example for the demand is, that prices are about 50% higher than 2021 and there we already had sometimes delivery problems. There was a time at the beginning of the year when it was nearly impossible to get any inverters. Now they are available but complete sets are often still around 600 EUR which would have been 400 in 2020. And they are still being paid for by savings in 4 to 8 years.
This is I cannot give you precise numbers. But we imagine that this growth will continue. More and more people know about this. Landlords are getting more acceptable, the inverters are more easily available (biggest obstacle right now), the political climate is favourable and the regulartory framework will get easier with a better norm.