The calculation is based on a dataset of more than 1,000 households of E.ON customers with their own photovoltaic systems. The energy they generated was compared with their electricity consumption over the past twelve months. The households are spread across the whole of Germany, with most concentrated in southern Germany. “66% of our customers who have a photovoltaic system generate more electricity throughout the year than they consume during the same period,” explains Victoria Ossadnik, CEO of E.ON Energie Deutschland.

E.ON believes that this means that the electricity needs of more than 10 million households or approximately 20 million people (with an average household size of two) in Germany could be met by solar energy; this would require two thirds of the nearly 16 million homes (as of 2017) in Germany producing their own solar power. So far, around 1.6 million systems have been installed.