Meanwhile, on the photovoltaics front: miraculously, a consensual solution to the problem of rate-change bubbles seems to materialise.

Last year, 7.5 GW of solar power capacity was installed in Germany, of this 3 MW in December alone, ahead of a pre-scheduled annual 15% cut in the feed-in rate at the end of the year. I summed up how and why rate-change bubbles emerge, and also the connected politics, five days ago; I won't repeat it here, only the solution I suggested then: more modest but more frequent rate cuts, in a monthly or quarterly frequency.

Now, the last rate-change bubble also emboldened Germany's federal economy minister Philipp Rösler, who is also the leader of the neoliberal and anti-solar FDP party, in his calls for another massive one-off rate cut (which would either kill the market [as intended] or produce yet another massive rate-change bubble, depending on how fast the industry can cut prices further). Yesterday, ahead of talks with the federal environment minister, the solar industry responded by preparing a counter-proposal which was identical with my suggestion:

WDH/'FTD': Solarbranche legt eigenen Kürzungsvorschlag vor | FTD.de		WDH /'FTD': solar industry presents own reduction proposal | FTD.de
Das neue Modell der stetigen Kürzung soll den Zubau reduzieren. Bisher wird die Einspeisevergütung immer zum 1. Juli und zum 1. Januar gekürzt. Davor kommt es regelmäßig zu enormen Schlussverkaufseffekten, die in Zukunft vermieden werden sollen. Noch unklar ist, ob die Anpassung in Zukunft vierteljährlich oder monatlich erfolgen soll. Aus Sicht der Branche ließe sich so das Marktgeschehen verstetigen.		The new model of continuous reduction is designed to reduce annual new installations. Until now, the feed-in tariff is reduced on 1 July and 1 January. Prior to [these reductions] usually enormous clearance sale effects occur, which are to be avoided in the future. It is still unclear whether in future the adjustment should be made quarterly or monthly. From the perspective of the industry, this would be the weay to stabilize the market.

The news today is that the environment minister seems to have accepted the proposal and even "owned" it, which almost ensures that this will be the government's proposal instead of the one-off rate cut:

PV-Gipfel: Röttgen plant kurzfristige Anpassungen der EEG-Vergütung - IWR		PV summit: Röttgen plans short-term adjustments to the feed-in law rates - IWR
Berlin - Bundesumweltminister Norbert Röttgen hat sich mit Vertretern der Solarwirtschaft getroffen, um vor dem Hintergrund der hohen Zubauzahlen über mögliche Anpassungen EEG-Vergütung von PV-Anlagen und die weitere Marktentwicklung zu beraten. [...] Röttgen will die Photovoltaik-Förderung im EEG in Zukunft nun monatlich, mindestens aber quartalsweise anpassen.		Berlin - Federal environment minister Norbert Röttgen has met with representatives of the solar industry to talk about feed-in law rates and further market development against the backdrop of high new installations of PV systems. [...] Röttgen wants to adapt the promotion of photovoltaics in the feed-in law each month or at least each quarter in the future.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}