Under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the fixed feed-in tariff runs for 20 full calendar years plus the year the system started. For systems connected in 2006, it ends on 31 December 2026. You do not have to switch anything off: the system may keep running and you keep getting paid for your power, just much less. Here is what applies from year 21 and what you can still make of your system.
In short
- If you do nothing: the system keeps feeding in and you automatically receive a follow-on payment, under current law until the end of 2032.
- How much: it follows the market value of solar power, minus a small flat fee. The Verbraucherzentrale expects about 3 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour.
- What usually pays more: using the power yourself. Every kilowatt hour from your own roof replaces power from the grid that costs several times as much.
- What you must not forget: the system has to be listed in the national market master data register (Marktstammdatenregister), and every change has to be reported there.
What happens automatically after 20 years
When the fixed tariff ends, the grid operator keeps taking your power and pays the annual market value for solar power (Jahresmarktwert Solar). The transmission system operators publish this value early in the following year; for 2025 it was 4.51 cents per kilowatt hour. The grid operator deducts a flat fee: 0.23 cents for 2026. If your system has a smart metering system, the fee is halved.
You do not have to apply for this. If your system feeds in all of its power today (full feed-in), the whole amount keeps being paid. If you already use part of it yourself, you are paid for the surplus.
This follow-on payment was first limited to the end of 2027. The Solar Package I extended it to the end of 2032 in 2024. The draft of the EEG 2027 keeps it: systems whose support has ended are assigned to this purchase automatically, paid at the annual market value, at most 10 cents per kilowatt hour, until 31 December 2032 (sections 21c, 23b and 25(3) of the draft). The planned end of the fixed tariff only affects new systems; more in our article on the EEG 2027.
Your options
1. Keep it running
This is the simplest way and costs nothing. But it brings little: a kilowatt hour that earned many times as much during the first 20 years now earns only a few cents.
2. Switch to self-consumption
Instead of feeding everything in, you use the power in your own home first and feed in only the rest. A qualified electrician has to rewire the system in the meter cabinet. According to the Verbraucherzentrale this costs from 200 euros in the simplest case and up to 2,000 euros with a new meter cabinet (battery not included).
An example with round assumptions: an old 5 kWp system produces about 4,500 kilowatt hours a year. With full feed-in at 4 cents, that brings about 180 euros. If you use 30 per cent of it yourself and pay 30 cents for grid power, you save about 405 euros on that share. The rest you feed in adds about 126 euros. Together that is about 530 euros instead of 180 euros a year. Your figure depends on your consumption and your electricity tariff.
3. Use more of it yourself
The more power you use during the day, the more the switch pays off. A home battery, a heat pump, an electric car with a wallbox or an immersion heater for hot water all help. Often it already helps to run the washing machine and dishwasher at midday.
4. Add new panels or replace the system
Under the EEG, every solar panel counts as a system of its own. New panels next to the old ones are therefore a new system, and the rules of the year they start apply to them. If they start running in 2026, they receive a fixed tariff for 20 years: for systems up to 10 kWp that start between 1 August and 31 December 2026, that is 7.70 cents with self-consumption and surplus feed-in, and 12.22 cents with full feed-in. From 2027, new systems are no longer meant to get a fixed tariff.
Whether you keep, extend or replace the old panels depends on their condition and on your roof area. Modern panels produce much more power on the same area.
Check first, then decide
A system that has spent 20 years on a roof deserves a careful look: inverter, panels, connectors and cables, roof penetrations and the meter cabinet. Inverters often do not last as long as panels and have already been replaced on many systems. The Verbraucherzentrale expects such a check to cost about 250 to 300 euros.
We have been building solar systems in Upper Bavaria since 2006 and know systems from that time. We look at yours and work out which option pays off for you. In the form, write in your message when your system started and how large it is, or give us a call.
Duties that remain
Every solar system must be listed in the Federal Network Agency’s market master data register, even without support. For old systems this was due by the end of January 2021. Check that your system is listed. If you switch to self-consumption, change the system or shut it down, you must report it there. If we do the conversion, we report it for you.