Solar PV: Australia Vs. Germany In 2024

Solar energy covered around 14 percent of electricity consumption in Germany last year, up from 12 percent in 2023. How does that compare to Australia?

According to the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft¹, the total output capacity of all solar power plants, large and small, exceeded 100 gigawatts (GW) when the calendar flipped over to 2025.

Given Germany isn’t as sunny as Australia, PV meeting 14 percent of electricity consumption in 2024 is pretty impressive. Last week, we reported that for the full year of 2024, rooftop solar in Australia’s NEM² accounted 12% of mains grid consumption. But what about with utility scale solar thrown in? According to Open Electricity, utility PV accounted for 7.1% of consumption last year – so the two together come to just over 19%.

BSW says “ground-level solar parks” (solar farms) were the biggest driver of PV growth in Germany, with a year-on-year increase of around 40 percent (6.3 GW – 32GW cumulative total). For rooftop commercial solar, it expects a growth increase of around 25 percent to 3.6GW (29GW cumulative total) last year.

But after several record years in a row, growth in home solar power system installations slowed in Germany. Compared to 2023, newly installed resident photovoltaic capacity (systems <30kW) fell by around an estimated 15 percent to 6.7 GW; bringing the total capacity installed to 38GW.

Overall, more than one million new solar power systems were registered in Germany in 2024, and installed photovoltaic capacity grew by around 10 percent compared to 2023.

As for Australia’s final figures for 2024, it’s still a bit soon to put a number on it.

Balcony Solar A Big Hit In Germany

Another aspect of PV that has been growing in Germany are “balcony” solar installations. These are small systems (maximum 800W capacity) feeding electricity directly into a power outlet to offset energy consumption within the home or building.

They’ve proven particularly popular in Germany, with newly installed capacity doubling in 2024 compared to the previous year (0.4 GW – cumulative total 0.7GW). If all those new systems were 800W (and they likely wouldn’t be), that works out to 375,000 installations in 2024.

What About Balcony Solar In Australia?

The total installed capacity of approved balcony solar installations in Australia is 0kW.

Balcony solar appears a decent idea for households without control of their rooftop, for example, apartment dwellers.  So, given it *seems* like a no-brainer solution; why hasn’t it taken off here?

We don’t see these systems (legally) in Australia as back-feeding electricity into an electrical system creates several concerns. As an aside, such systems are pretty limited in what they’ll produce here. For a more in-depth look at these issues,  Kim’s article on balcony solar systems from last year has some good info and interesting discussion following it.

Germany Vs. Australia’s Renewable Energy Targets

Germany has set at target for solar PV of 215 GW in 2030 – so, it has 5 years left to install another 100GW of capacity. It also has a target of 80 per cent of the country’s electricity sourced from renewables by the same year. According to Fraunhofer ISE, renewable energy’s share was 56 percent in 2024, compared to 55.3 percent in 2023.

The Australian Government has set a target of 82% renewable electricity nationally by 2030. In 2024, renewables accounted for 38.9% in the NEM and 38.8% in WA’s SWIS.