Germany's potential for using solar energy on buildings is enormous, but still largely untapped. In 2023, 61.1 terawatt hours of solar power were produced. This corresponds to only twelve percent of national electricity consumption. According to the knowledge magazine "scinexx", if Germany's annual electricity requirements were to be covered by solar energy, the area of the island of Rügen - almost 1,000 square kilometers - would have to be covered with solar panels.
According to experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, the use of solar systems could be massively expanded - on roofs and façades as well as in the agrivoltaics sector. The technical potential for photovoltaics on roofs and façades is estimated at a total of 1,000 gigawatts peak. Nevertheless, less than ten percent of the possible roof potential and less than one percent of the façade potential has actually been used to date.
There is also potential in the field of agriphotovoltaics, the integration of solar power in vineyards, orchards or arable land. The opportunities to generate usable solar power in Germany are therefore there. But it still needs to be implemented. "In order to cover our entire energy requirements from renewable energies, a massive expansion of installed PV capacity is necessary," says Harry Wirth from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
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