Supply bottlenecks slow down expansion of PV systems in Germany – survey

Both installers and customers of photovoltaic installations and battery storage systems are facing delays due to supply bottlenecks of some key components, pv-magazine has found in a survey. Certain components, such as hybrid inverters, now have delivery times of more than six months. Sixty-three percent of installers said they are facing waiting times of more than three months for many parts and 35 percent said that long delivery times applied to only some of the products they need. The statement "I cannot build and commission certain installations at the moment" was agreed to by 56 percent of the participants. Waiting times for new PV customers on average were five months and some 68 percent of installation companies now warn their customers of time-delayed price increases.

Germany’s government is pushing for much faster renewables growth, and wants to see the construction of some 22 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV capacity by 2026. But the pandemic and the Ukraine war have made supply chains patchy and many are now warning that some of the government’ goals are bound to remain unattainable if there is a lack of hardware and workers.