Germany outfitted half a million balconies with solar panels

Post by grumpy-de-sre » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:15 AM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #246

Germany did one simple thing (uncharacteristically) which is removing all the bureaucracy here. Just go ahead and do it. It's fine. Cost in the article is cited at 550 euro. I just browsed amazon.de and you can buy complete plug and play kits here in Germany for as little as 239 euro. Most kits are priced between 300-350 euro. I did not see a many kits over 500. I pay about 70 euro per month for electricity. If it sa…

Post by kragen » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:16 AM UTC

kronicum2025 wrote: post #210

vineyardmike wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand this sentiment at all. They didn’t sacrifice their balcony, and this is electricity that the central utility organizations couldn’t generate. Many parts of the world don’t even allow this kind of solar panel to be used by individuals, so its legality is actually a policy success. Generally, balcony panels are hung off the side of the railing, so no space was lost. If this was blocking out windows o…

> I don’t understand this sentiment at all. They didn’t sacrifice their balcony, and this is electricity that the central utility organizations couldn’t generate. Many parts of the world don’t even allow this kind of solar panel to be used by individuals, so its legality is actually a policy success. Completely disagree. This is definitely electricity that central utility organizations could generate. A central metho…

Post by slow_typist » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:18 AM UTC

kragen wrote: post #202

slow_typist wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens already. Lease for green land (probably wrong terminus) and arable land went up by more than 30% in ten years [1]. PV is arguably a very small factor of influence yet. But the pressure is real. [1] https://www.bmel-statistik.de/landwirtschaft/landwirtschaftl...

That page doesn't say anything about PV. https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/en/documents/p... says that 17 million hectares are used for agriculture in Germany, 48000 hectares are used for golf courses, and (as of 02021) 32000 hectares were used for photovoltaics, which would be 0.2% of the agricultural area. I'm having a hard time finding current figures, but I doubt photovoltaics are more than 2% of the…

Post by ben_w » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:19 AM UTC

ralfd wrote: post #247

numlock86 wrote: post #238

> Germany outfitted half a million balconies with solar panels A more fitting title would be "Germany's citizens outfitted half a million balconies with solar panels". The current phrasing makes it sound like it's somehow a thing done by the government, which is not the case. If anything the government is one of the many forces slowing down this progress. And yes, I am aware of things like grid security and stability…

Nitpick: Not every house owner is a citizen though.

Post by kragen » Mon, Oct 06, 2025, 7:21 AM UTC

piva00 wrote: post #269

alexey-salmin wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, like growing potatoes made economic sense to my parents' generation. Economic sense is largely defined by the economic policy set by the government. No one puts balcony solar in France, somehow their economic sense is different.

France has changed permitting laws to allow small-scale solar, i.e.: balcony solar, the difference is that the nominal output is much lower (350W vs 800W for Germany) which, by policy, makes it less attractive. So it isn't that France economic policies have made installing balcony solar unattractive, it's the permitting policies which are blocking people from installing more. You have it inverted, pun intended.