Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) has developed a new way to quantify PV self-consumption in Germany using national register and grid-operator data, amid a steady rise in onsite use as installations and storage capacity expand.
Sandra Enkhardt
From pv magazine Germany
Given high electricity costs in Germany, operators of PV systems see value in consuming generated solar power directly or storing it in battery systems. Fraunhofer ISE has developed a new method to estimate the level of photovoltaic self-consumption.
Self-consumption of solar power is a key incentive for households and businesses to invest in photovoltaic systems in Germany. However, published electricity generation data often makes it unclear how much of the generated output is used on-site.
Fraunhofer ISE has now developed, for the first time, a method to quantify PV self-consumption using data from the Market Master Data Register and the transmission system operators.
Analyses based on this method show a sharp increase in photovoltaic self-consumption. After initially moderate growth, self-consumption reached 3.55 TWh in 2020 and rose to 5.57 TWh in 2022, according to new data released by the Freiburg-based researchers this week. Their calculations indicate that self-consumption from photovoltaic systems in Germany reached 8.20 TWh in 2023.
“In 2024, self-consumption reached 12.28 TWh. With grid feed-in of nearly 60 TWh, self-consumption accounted f