German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen has today confirmed that the country will not be supporting any more solar power incentives for plants over 10 megawatts. The minister said Germany would reduce its solar feed in-tariffs by between 20 and 30 percent from the beginning of next month.

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The 9th March deadline, announced today, comes as a surprise to Germans, who were expecting to see cuts in tariffs coming into effect from 1st April. However, the Economy and Environment ministries announced the new deadline and radical cuts to solar incentives in a statement earlier today.

New incentives in Germany will be cut to 19.5 Euro cents per kilowatt hour for small domestic installations, 16.5 cents per kWh for installations up to 1,000 kilowatts and 13.5 cents per kWh for arrays of up to 10 megawatts.

The German government, echoing statements made by the UK government which is currently negotiating its own tariff reductions, said the cuts were in response to a record-breaking adoption of solar power in the country, following larger than expected demand and a reduction in the price of installation. The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change expressed a desire to copy the German system of frequent revisions and amendments to feed-in tariffs as part of its revised approach earlier in the year.

Germany is currently the world leader in solar power generation. However, the new measures are intended to curtail the further growth of solar power generation in the country, as the boom exceeded Germany’s renewable energy targets; the government is encouraging energy generated from a range of sources as a means of replacing its nuclear programme, which is gradually being phased out.

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