Solar power curtailment on the rise in Germany as grid expansion lags behind

Germany is increasingly curtailing electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the country’s southern state of Bavaria, as grid expansion continues to lag behind, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported.

Until now, this has mainly been an issue in Germany’s coastal states in the north, where large amounts of wind energy are fed into the grid, especially in winter, and cannot be transported to industrial centres in the country’s west and south. “The significant interventions in Bavaria are new,” the newspaper wrote. 

The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said that curtailment of solar power plants roughly doubled in 2024 and again 2025, with “by far the most” action taken in Bavaria. The state has the largest installed solar PV capacity in Germany. The Bavarian economy ministry said that curtailment mainly affects the summer months during high feed-in around midday. In 2024, solar PV accounted for 1,100 gigawatt hours of curtailed electricity across Germany, around ten percent of total curtailments. 

Bavaria long resisted the expansion of major electricity transmission lines across its territory, but distribution grids are also an issue, SZ wrote. The state economy ministry told the newspaper that the eight major Bavarian network operators will invest billions of euros in expansion in the coming years, “which will significantly increase capacity in the Bavarian distribution network.” New energy storage facilities and the expected completion of major transmission grid projects in the coming years are expected to provide additional relief.