Germany Embraces Balkonkraftwerke — Balcony Solar For Apartments

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Lots of people, especially city dwellers and renters, don’t have rooftops where they can install solar panels to generate some of the electricity they use in their daily lives. Community solar offers a partial solution for some, but it is not available everywhere. In Germany, more than 1.5 million people have installed Balkonkraftwerke, which translates as “balcony power plants.” Almost every apartment has a balcony with a railing to keep folks from tumbling into the street below. If it gets any sun exposure during the day, balcony solar panels can be mounted to those railings to make electricity that helps power a home.

Proponents say balcony solar panels are easy to install on railings (and uninstall if need be in the event of storms). Once in place, people simply plug a micro-inverter into an available wall outlet. Add a small battery to store any solar energy not needed right away and you have your own personal micro-minigrid inside your home. The systems sell for between $500 and $1000, depending on the number of solar panels purchased. A typical system consists of two 150-watt panels and can pay for itself in a few years. It is also highly portable, so it can easily be transported from one apartment to another if the owner moves.

Germany Leads In Balcony Solar

According to Grist, Germany now has more than 550,000 balcony solar installations, half of which were installed in 2023. During the first six months of 2024, Germany added 200 megawatts of balcony solar. Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, which is enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop, but the cumulative effect is nudging the country toward its clean energy goals while giving apartment dwellers, who make up more than half of the German population, an easy way to save money and address the climate crisis. Matthias Weyland, who lives in Keil, tells Grist, “I love the feeling of charging the bike when the sun is shining, or having the washing machine run when the sun is shining, and to know that it comes directly from the sun. It’s a small step you can take as a tenant” and an act of “self-efficacy, to not just sit and wait until the climate crisis gets worse.”

Balcony solar started a decade ago, but didn’t really catch on until 2019 when the German government enacted the first technical regulations for plug-in solar devices, allowing balcony solar systems to use standard electrical plugs and feed into the grid. That prompted an influx of plug-in devices and advocates to promote the technology. The pandemic helped fuel the surge in popularity as people spent more time working from home. The escalating energy price of electricity that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led more Germans to consider balcony solar. “People just did anything they could to reduce their energy bills,” said Wolfgang Gründinger, who works with the clean energy company Enpal.

In April, the German government simplified permitting and registration requirements, and in July, federal lawmakers passed renter protections that prevent landlords from arbitrarily blocking installations. Cities throughout Germany, including Berlin, have offered millions of euros in subsidies to install balcony solar. Gründinger and experts at the German Solar Industry Association noted that the devices don’t generate enough power to strain the grid, and their standardized design and safety features allow them to integrate into balconies smoothly and easily.

Many of them like the idea of producing energy at home and gaining a bit of independence from the grid. The system also provides a tangible way to take climate action. “It makes the energy transition feel a little more concrete and not so abstract,” said Helena Holenweger of Environmental Action Germany. She installed a balcony solar system on top of her garage about a year ago. “You can literally do something about it.”

Raising Climate Consciousness

Holenweger and others say balcony solar led them to reevaluate their understanding of electricity consumption and take steps to reduce it. “For lots of people, energy is just something that comes out of your socket. You never think about how it gets there or how it works.” The systems don’t include battery storage, so the juice they generate must be used immediately, leading people to plan the best time to run the washing machine to ensure they’re using renewable energy. In that way, it becomes something of a game. Many balcony solar kits feature an app to track daily energy generation. That has become something of a scorecard for many who have balcony solar systems. “They screenshot that, they send it around to their Facebook groups, family WhatsApp groups. They’re super proud,” Gründinger said.

Manufacturers say that installing a couple of 300-watt panels will give savings of up to 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill, but there are lots of variables that come with that claim. It depends on which direction the balcony faces and whether the panels are shaded part of the day. Perhaps the biggest benefit is the increased awareness of the need to find solutions to climate emissions. People with balcony solar systems influence others and it seems reasonable to expect they will vote for leaders who share their concerns.

Balcony Solar In Spain

In Spain, where two thirds of the population live in apartments and installing panels on the roof requires the consent of a majority of the building’s residents, this DIY technology has obvious advantages. With solar balconies, no such consent is required unless the facade is listed as being of historic interest or there is a specific prohibition from the residents’ association or the local authority. According to The Guardian, as long as the installation does not exceed 800 watts — about what a typical hairdryer uses — one doesn’t require certification.

“The beauty of the solar balconies is they are flexible, cheap and plug straight into the domestic network via a converter, so you don’t have to pay for the installation,” says Santiago Vernetta, CEO of Tornasol Energy, one of Spain’s main suppliers. As the cost of solar panels continues to fall, Vernetta says the labor cost of installing rooftop solar is often greater than the price of the materials. He adds that the vertical surface area of cities is far greater than that of available roofs and that balcony panels benefit more than roof panels from the low winter sun.

Raquel Paule, director of the Fundación Renovables in Madrid, says the increasingly popular energy communities in which residents benefit from solar installations on the roofs of nearby schools and sports centers are another way around the problem of majority consent. “Balcony power is another piece in the puzzle. They are another step towards using the built environment to generate electricity. Paule emphasizes that self sufficiency, whether in individual households or energy communities, is a vital part of energy transition, especially for cities which depend on outside sources for about 97% of their electricity.

“Cities need to become more self-sufficient by generating more,” she says. “Energy transition involves a change from cities depending on a centralised system with big companies supplying electricity to a more widely distributed, more democratic and more participative model, and this is what the energy companies are scared of. Big energy companies should be pushing for renewables because they’ve played a big part in getting us into this situation. Instead of creating obstacles, they should be facilitators by giving everyone access to the grid that they control.”

“Plug-in solar is part of the whole array of options,” says Michael Schmela, director of market intelligence at SolarPower Europe, an umbrella group for 320 European solar power organisations. “What’s special about balcony power is it’s so versatile and you can install it as part of the building. This is the next step. The technology is there but the regulations and architects have to embrace it. There are so many solutions and balcony solar is the latest trend. For years solar has been the fastest growing and cheapest in the energy sector,” Schmela says, adding that what is needed now is battery development and greater cohesion between wind, solar, and other renewables.

Vernetta says Spain has been slow to catch on to balcony power, but he remains confident the technology will take off. “If 1.5 million Germans have bought solar balcony kits there must be something in it,” he says.