Solar Energy Installations: Change in Feed-in tariffs (en)

Germany
Based on the change of government in Germany and the continuing expansion of Solar energy installations the following proposal has been put forward by the Ministry for Environmment;
Following a press briefing with the BMU this morning (January 20), the following official changes were proposed for the EEG. These changes are extremely likely, however they are still not final law.

• Rooftop: From April 1. -15%
• Free field: From July 1. -15%
• Free field “pure farm” and “Valuable” land”: -25%
• “Direct use of pv electricity”: plus €0.05/kWh (this change is yet to be clarified, until now it was a bonus for systems <30KWp-)
• Future regulation for PV in the EEG: Mechanisms are to stay the same, a reduction will occur from 1.1.2011 according to EEG 2009 regulation. Market target is now 3GW/a, if >3,5 GWp/a is reached a further -2.5%, at 4,5GWp another 2.5% will be cut.

These proposals will now go through the political process, which will be finalized at the end of March 2010. The situation could improve, as the industry is so likely to resist the changes, yet even if there is a change, it is not at all likely to be significant.
Comments by Dr. Henning Wicht in http://www.pv-tech.org/

With the extra feed-in tariff cuts due to kick in in April this year, iSuppli’s senior director and principal solar analyst, Dr. Henning Wicht, expects a significant rush to install PV systems before FiT changes cause a dramatic fall in demand. Wicht is projecting installations to reach approximately 1GW in the first quarter, plummeting to only 50MW in April and remaining at the 100MW level in May and June. However, a recovery in demand is expected with a forecast of 2.7GW of total installations in 2010.Indeed, the crash that Wicht has modelled is actually very short, especially considering the strong recovery in the fourth quarter, which is little different from installation levels experienced in the same quarter of 2009.

England
The following Feed-in tariffs has been proposed by the government. We are still expecting the Government to announce their final proposals beginning of February and the tariffs to start  on time for April.
The tariffs may change a little from  the original proposals, but probably not much.

Solar PV   /   €/kWh

<4 kW: 0,337 €/kWh

<4 kW Retrofit: 0,397 €/kWh

>4 kW<10 kW: 0,337 €/kWh

>10 kW<100 kW: 0,304 €/kWh

>100 kW<5 MW: 0,283 €/kWh

Stand Alone System: 0,283 €/kWh

All of the above tariffs will de with a yearly 75 degression.
If this is OK, we will probably see a good Solar Market emerging in the UK.

Source: http://www.pv-tech.org/