The City Council's Committee for Climate and Environmental Protection today approved the Munich's solar strategy, which considers the inner-city solar energy expansion schemein a comprehensive way.

The strategy aims for extensive photovoltaic (PV) expansion so that around 25 percent of the city's electricity consumption can be covered by inner-city solar systems in the long term. To this end, in a transformation phase up to 2030, PV expansion is to be increased at a growth rate of 40 percent to around 100 megawatts peak (MWp) per year.In addition to the strong expansion of solar energy generation.

Mayor Dieter Reiter commented: "With the solar Munich master plan, we are one of the first German municipalities to think holistically about the issue of photovoltaic expansion and thus create a reliable framework for administration, business, trade, building owners and Munich residents."

Christine Kugler, officer for climate and environmental protection: "The solar master plan for Munich is an essential part of the energy transition and helps us in the transformation to a climate-neutral city. Munich offers sufficient potential to achieve the ambitious photovoltaic expansion capacity of around 100 megawatts peak per year. In the coming years it will be a question of tapping into this potential.

Photovoltaic expansion increased significantly in the first half of 2023
With a photovoltaic addition of over 10 MWp, more PV capacity was added in Munich in 2023 than in 2020 and 2021 - and done so in just under half a year. If the expansion continues in the second half of the year, the expansion of 15 MWp planned for 2023 will probably be significantly exceeded.

Mayor Dieter Reiter said: "There is still a huge untapped potential for clean energy on Munich's roofs, so I am very pleased that the expansion of PV, especially in the private sector, has gained significant momentum in Munich. So our funding program is having an effect. And we as a city are also setting a good example and, with an installed PV capacity of around 7 MWp, are the largest system operator in the city area."

Christine Kugler, officer for climate and environmental protection:"The current PV expansion figures are impressive and can be traced back almost entirely to the commitment of private individuals. For example, well over 1,000 small plant operators were enthusiastic about the so-called balcony power plants. Municipal solar subsidies have been applied foraround 2,000 additional balcony solar systems and almost 3,000 larger PV systems. This shows us that we have hit the nerve of the times with our 'climate-neutral buildings' funding program."

This article was translated from Germany on Munich City's web portal