Work begins on Germany's first crowdfunded solar park
Clean Energy Wire / Handelsblatt
Work has begun on the first crowdfunded solar park in Germany with a capacity of about 1.3 megawatts, energy company BayWa r.e. and online energy market place enyway have announced. The park is also to be built entirely without state subsidies. For just under 40 euros, citizens were offered shares in the solar park in the Eastern German state of Sachsen-Anhalt. In return, they will receive the electricity that corresponds to their investment and be able to purchase the rest of their power consumption from renewable sources. "We are proving that the energy transition is economically possible without state subsidies," said enyway co-founder Varena Junge about the project, which has reached almost 70 percent of its necessary funding. So far, it has mostly been possible for German home owners to profit from the energy transition, but concepts like crowdfunding solar and wind power could "increase acceptance" of the Energiewende among other citizens, comments Jürgen Flauger in business daily Handelsblatt.
Enyway manager Heiko von Tschieschwitz also founded Germany’s first, and now largest, green power provider Lichtblick almost 20 years ago. Germany has set caps on the volume of renewable power eligible for the support payments made through the renewables surcharge, which customers pay with their power bill. The solar power industry has warned that capacity is set to exceed its cap for guaranteed remuneration by mid-2020.
