18
votes
How balcony solar is taking off
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- Title
- 'If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it': how balcony solar is taking off
- Authors
- Stephen Burgen
- Published
- Dec 18 2024
- Word count
- 892 words
If these are the panels I am thinking about then there is a bit of a caveat. Or rather, something to be aware of. A lot of apartments are rentals, meaning that in order to use regular panels you'd need permission from your landlord to make adjustments to the electricals.
What you can do is get so-called "plug and play" panels which you plug into a socket and effectively add the electricity to your houses grid through that. This means that they also add load to the group they are plugged into. If you just plug in one panel it likely will be okay, but if you plug in two in the same group they causes issues with wires heating up and various other things I can't quite remember.
They are legal in the Netherlands (sort of) and I suppose in Germany, but there are also countries where they are forbidden by law.
There is a lot more nuance to it and different ways of using them, overall it is something to be aware of.
This is probably not legal in the US. It reminds me of something that's warned about a lot in the northern US: you should not under any circumstances plug a generator into a household outlet, like how these solar panels work. You need a proper transfer switch to prevent energy from potentially being pushed back down the lines, which could kill linemen working on "dead" lines. (If you don't have that, you just hook up individual appliances to the generator outlets.)
There used to be PSAs on TV about that, because people absolutely do it. Back when I worked at a hardware store, people would come in looking for a "generator cord" in the winter, throw a fit, and then buy a couple of male connectors and a length of cord to DIY it.
In the US, when I got solar installed, it was required to have a cut off switch installed to prevent pushing power back for that exact reason.
I still like this idea of "balcony solar", but just like you, I suspect it won't be allowed here. The best you can do here is probably getting an large home battery and charge that from the panels and use that battery to run various things and/or charge devices.
It's legal in Germany, but only up to a certain production. Once you get to something like 400? 500? Watts, you need extra permits and stuff
Do you have any resources that can help me get up to speed with the situation in the Netherlands? Specifically, I am interested in understanding which models are legal and available.
I briefly looked into these panels before but found information mostly about Germany, which didn't provide much clarity for my situation. So I put it at the bottom of my to-do list again.
The information I found is fragmented as well, as far as my understanding goes they are legal with a max of 800 watt and ideally are plugged in their own group. Some stuff I found:
I parked the idea over similar concerns. There just isn't that much concrete data and truth be told I just don't really trust the electricals in our apartment either.
An alternative I have been meaning to look into is getting one of those EcoFlow (or similar) battery power stations. As they come with a charging plug specifically to charge from solar panels. The idea being that I'd plug my computer and work laptop in there. That way they EcoFlow can charge from solar when there is sun and otherwise charge from the grid and in the process serve as a UPS.
As far as my understanding goes they can charge and be used at the same time. But I haven't actually put in the time to figure out how it interacts when both a solar panel and grid power are plugged into the thing.
Thanks! The subject just jumped up a few notches on the list. A battery station might be interesting too, I agree.
@scroll_lock had a post about solar power a few months ago, so when I saw this, I thought I should post. What do you think?