German balcony solar boom: Record installations amid rising prices

Photovoltaic panels installed on balconies are gaining popularity in Germany, where local authorities actively promote small-scale energy installations of this type. Residents are eager to take advantage of these incentives.

According to information from gramwzielone.pl, investments in balcony photovoltaics in Germany have reached record levels thanks to recent regulatory changes that facilitate the installation of such systems. Their popularity among apartment block residents is also related to the rise in electricity prices, which in Germany, following the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, increased from about 29p to about 39p per kWh.

Statistics confirm the increased demand for balcony installations in Germany. In 2023, Germany installed around 330,000 such photovoltaic systems, and there is no indication that this trend will reverse. Support from local authorities and falling prices of photovoltaic panels are favouring this phenomenon. For example, in Berlin, residents can receive a subsidy of roughly £470 for installing panels on balconies.

According to information provided by the Bundesnetzagentur, the German energy market regulator, in the first quarter of 2024, Germany installed 50,000 balcony photovoltaic systems. This means that the total number of solar power plants on balconies has exceeded 440,000 in this country.

Germany is striving to provide friendly conditions for the development of this market segment. The editorial team of gramwzielone.pl reports on the recent legislative changes that have significantly reduced the number of pieces of information required from the investor when registering such an installation in the Marktstammdatenregister (MaStR) system. Now, only five pieces of information will need to be provided, instead of the previous twenty.

Additionally, the Bundesnetzagentur will automatically inform the local distribution system operator about the registration of a balcony photovoltaic installation. At the beginning of this year, the maximum allowable power of such installations was raised from about 660W to about 880W, and now it is to be increased even further.

Even though the share of balcony photovoltaics in the total photovoltaic energy production in Germany is relatively small, these small systems have a significant advantage: they provide a high level of self-consumption of energy. Vertical panels with a capacity of 880W generate relatively low power, which means that most of the energy produced is used directly by the residents. As a result, there is no need to feed excess energy into the network.