1M+ German households have hung solar panels off their balcony railings

33 pointsposted 4 hours ago
by nixass

10 Comments

thijson

14 minutes ago

Plug in solar is nice because you don't have to hire an electrician, just plug into an outlet.

zhivota

2 hours ago

Philippines is seeing an incredible explosion in solar power, but none of this kind of thing. Instead it's driven by a gray market - equipment is imported, mostly without paying proper duties and taxes, installers are unlicensed, installs are not reported and don't apply for net metering, so the incentive is to maximize your battery capacity as a result.

The lack of state capacity here to enforce rules has allowed solar to flourish.

dzhiurgis

an hour ago

My guess Phillipines has much less seasonal variability for solar, which makes it feasible to live almost off grid?

Balcony solar is mostly a token. Maybe only enough to run your electronics. I'm sure Germans are frivolous with their power use (subsidized by their gas, petrol and heating oil use) so percentage wise it's not super trivial.

zhivota

an hour ago

There is a good amount of variability in weather, there is a rainy season, but solar irradiance is mostly the same and strong here overall. So a big array and a big battery can see you through everything but the worst string of rainy days, and for that you can get a diesel generator if you really need it, or just stay on grid.

karim79

4 hours ago

"Balkonkraftwerk"

Hell yes I'm down for this.

casper14

42 minutes ago

Solar is good, but come on Germany, would have been nice to still have some of these nuclear powers plants eh.

metalman

3 hours ago

Pakistan has gone far far beyond this level of indivual solar instals for personal use, somewhere over 3 gigawatts, and in the absence of any regualatory anything, but still somehow helping to stabilise the grid, it's now irevocably entrenched and expanding very quickly. Hopefully the next phase will see a major switch to EV's and something can begin to change in what is some of the worst airpolution on the planet, as emmisions are regualated the same as PV and batteries, ie:with very occasional performative hand wringing.