RESEARCH PROJECT EXAMINES SOLAR POWER PROSUMER CONCEPTS IN THE EU
The EU-funded research project PVP4Grid presents a first assessment containing fundamental observations on the individual and collective use of locally generated solar power. The report differentiates between three prosumer concepts – individual self-consumption, collective use of a photovoltaic system within a building and solar power supply at neighborhood level – and examines the respective regulatory framework conditions. According to the study, individual self-consumption, i.e. when the system operator (producer) and electricity consumer are identical, is legally possible in all of the countries examined. Five of the eight countries allow the shared use of a photovoltaic system within the same building, while this is expressly forbidden in Belgium, Italy and Spain. Solar power supply at neighborhood level, making use of the public power grid, is so far only legally permissible and economically feasible in two of the countries examined, namely France and the Netherlands.
“The analysis of existing framework conditions in the individual countries forms a significant basis for the continuing work of PVP4Grid. The aim of the international project is to make a contribution to the development of improved prosumer concepts and the spread of consumer-friendly solar power,” according to Carsten Körnig, Executive Director of BSW-Solar, which coordinates of the project.
The potential that the various prosumer concepts have for photovoltaics also depends on the respective funding mechanisms that are in place. For older small-scale PV systems that receive remuneration for the solar power they feed into the grid at higher rates than the current electricity price for final consumers, individual self-consumption naturally plays only a minor role. The study examined the legal and political framework conditions in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Spain.
In addition to the extensive English-language study, PVP4Grid also published reports in the individual countries’ respective languages that depict the situation in each country, as well as an English summary of these reports.
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