Poland’s micro-installation market is quickly consolidating because it shifts from internet metering to internet billing.
Poland’s residential rooftop photo voltaic market started to vary within the spring, when new provisions established that each one new PV “micro-installations” as much as 50 kW in dimension needed to function beneath a brand new internet billing regime.
The brand new internet billing system changed the online metering scheme that was in pressure since 2016. Web metering has been the primary market driver for the section over the previous 5 years.
Below the previous internet metering guidelines, homeowners of PV methods with capacities as much as 10 kW may inject as much as 80% of their energy into the grid, whereas PV methods ranging in dimension from 10 kW to 50 kW have been allowed to feed as much as 70% of their electrical energy into the grid.
However beneath the brand new internet billing guidelines, prosumers have to organize a invoice that features the vitality they generated. The worth is then calculated in keeping with a particular mannequin associated to the value of a kilowatt-hour throughout so-called “day-ahead buying and selling.” Nonetheless, the net-billing mannequin will likely be in a transitional stage till 2024.
The brand new internet billing provisions additionally state that PV system homeowners who submitted appropriate grid-connection purposes by March 31 will likely be given entry to the nation’s rebate scheme, Mój Prąd (My Electrical energy) scheme launched in July 2019, for the subsequent 15 years.
“The transfer away from net-metering on the finish of March, coupled with adjustments to subsidy program Mój Prąd, resulted in a big drop in residential micro-installations,” Marcin Ślęzak, chief business officer for Menlo Electrical, informed pv journal. “The slowdown on this section exceeded even essentially the most conservative estimates – the lower in new gross sales between March and April was as excessive as 70% for some installers.”
He stated that due to the brand new guidelines, a number of necessary gamers within the Polish PV sector presently face vital monetary losses. Nonetheless, this example is simply non permanent, as larger vitality costs might jolt the residential section into life, he stated.
“A brand new sort of participant is poised to profit essentially the most from this upcoming progress wave – PV installers that had been acquired by main vitality teams previous to the scheme change,” he stated, in reference to a number of current M&A transactions. “Their new affiliation permits them to broaden their providing, coupling PV set up with multi-year guaranteed-price vitality contracts and pioneering solar-as-a-service mannequin.”
Ślęzak stated that the Polish market will expertise a rise in demand for PV panels within the second half of the 12 months. He predicted that module costs will converge to West European benchmarks and panel availability might face disruption.
Researchers just lately described the the danger of a market slowdown beneath the brand new internet billing regime in “The importance and potential of photovoltaics in the context of low-carbon development in Poland,” which was just lately printed in Power Storage and Saving.
“It must be seen that the primary threats which will hinder the present dynamic growth of photovoltaics in Poland are adjustments within the legislation and the discount of economic assist,” the report stated, in reference to the rooftop PV section. “The primary authorized drawback identified by consultants was the change within the technique of settling unused electrical energy by the prosumer, with the simultaneous lack of options supporting investments in house vitality storage.”
The researchers claimed that incentives for residential storage methods may additionally assist photo voltaic demand within the residential and business segments.
“Primarily based on the out there vitality storage applied sciences, the photovoltaic set up will be retrofitted with a set of batteries, which can allow elevated self-consumption of vitality on the place of its era with out the necessity to burden the ability grid,” they stated.
