Germany just now approved new laws that make setting up solar on your balcony super easy
Germany just now approved new laws that make setting up solar on your balcony super easy
Mini-Solaranlage auf dem Balkon oder Photovoltaik-Anlage im Mehrfamilienhaus - das soll künftig ohne komplizierte Anmeldung möglich sein. Bundestag und Bundesrat haben das Solarpaket beschlossen.
Just 10 years ago, landlords could ban you from putting solar cells on your balcony because it makes their building look "messy". Now Germany is really pushing forward to let everybody put solar modules on their balcony with these new laws. How is legalization of balcony solar cells in your country? Is setting up solar modules on your balcony easy or difficult law-wise?
Translated by Google:
In the future, private individuals will be able to operate mini solar systems as balcony power plants without complicated registration
This is the coolest part. As I understand it you'll be able to export 500w to the grid without requiring approval of your provider. The new units just plug into the wall and back feed power into your house to reduce your bill.
Depending on how the law is written, I can imagine people putting a battery between the solar and inverter so they could capture more energy and export the maximum 500w all day & night
Does this make sense if the surface area will be so neglegible anyway? I feel like the ~6m² you can fit onto the side of a balcony is nothing compared to a whole field/flat roof covered with them...
Well let's do some back of the envelope math.
Conservative estimate: 6m^2 about 6000w of sunlight x 20% panel efficiency x 4hrs/day = 4800wh or 9.5 hrs at max 500w inverter output.
Liberal estimate: 6m^2 about 7200w of sunlight x 25% panel efficiency x 5hrs/day = 9000wh or 18 hrs at max 500w inverter output.
I think this would be worth it for an apartment dweller who doesn't have access to the roof or a whole field. And producing the power when and where it's used reduces transmission costs.
The important thing on backfeeding is that utility workers will need to isolate at more points before working, otherwise they will get injured by backfeeding/battery systems if they run on infrastructure they are working on.
Lots of people are already doing that. I've seen kits of solar cells and batteries being sold.
I got a tiny one on my balcony last year. With WFH it doesn't put anything through to the grid but already lowered our consumption by 1/10, which is pretty amazing. Plugs into a regular socket. Power provider exchanged the meter to be able to handle it for free, and everything else was also very smooth. I am very happy with it and would put up more, if I had the space.
“To be able to handle it” means a meter that will not record any negative consumption to prevent them from having to pay you for excess energy.
Means a meter that records input as well as output and no, Germany so far does not have anything in place where regular folk get paid for what they input.
But as I said, everything I generate goes directly into my own consumption, so I don't mind much.
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Do you have a link to some thing like the one that you got?
I would really like a solution like this, not some full on integrated into my house, sells surplus back to the grid kind of solution, just some thing to slightly reduce how much I fall back to the grid for power without insane installation costs would be amazing.
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I got my stuff from priwatt. They got most types of solutions. Possibly a bit more expensive than elsewhere, but they handle a lot of the paperwork as well.
We should be allowed to install cells on our windows too, if we can have curtains we should be able to have solar.
At least in Germany it is legally required that rooms get a certain amount of natural light. There are transparent solar panels in development though, which could be just as much as a foil being put onto the glass itself. Not as effective of course, but still.
The stuff about rooms having solar access are for designers and architects to ensure they design to put those rooms in appropriate places to get those rates
Also to protect against development that would shade such a room (but actually the whole yard in my jurisdiction)
Do you mean installing the cell across the window glass? A vertically installed solar cell?
super easy
Barely an inconvenience.
How does this work in practice? I saw one where you plugged the solar cell into a device and the device plugged into a regular wall socket.
Is it really that easy?Yes with a grid tie inverter it's pretty much that easy. But doing it yourself this way can be dangerous to electricians who thought they cut the power. If the "island protection" on the inverter fails to disconnect after the loss of power those wires could still be hot.
Edit fixed a word
I would hope electricians would always double check the line they're working on regardless.
What's interesting about this is that you don't have to necessarily pull permits for electrical work, as nobody is running conduit or attaching to electrical panel.
Im grandfathered into an old solar rate plan, and if I change the system or add more panels I'll lose that privilege. However, if I don't have to tell the city or utility anything, that opens the door for expanding with balcony solar panels.
Sounds nice, unfortunately I don't even see the sky from my apartment :(
I have a almost straight South facing living room window with no houses on the other side but I doubt my landlord would be okay with drilling stuff in and onto the facade.