Balcony power plants: number of plug-in solar devices doubled in 2024
The number of balcony power plants has grown strongly in Germany this year. The solar industry believes that growth will continue to increase.
Balcony power plant on a house in Bremen.
(Image: heise online / anw)
The number of balcony power plants in Germany has doubled since the beginning of this year. The market master data register lists 716,435 balcony power plants that went into operation before October 1, 2024. Before January 1, 2024, 351,287 plug-in solar devices were put into operation.
This trend is likely to increase, says Carsten Körnig, Managing Director of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW). The legislator has created the basis for this by removing several bureaucratic obstacles. The BSW includes reporting obligations to the grid operator, and the prices of solar systems have also fallen further.
The BSW refers to changes to residential property and tenancy law, which the Federal Council approved at the end of September this year. The change in the law makes balcony power plants "privileged projects". This means that owners' associations can no longer refuse the installation of plug-in solar systems without good reason, similar to structural changes "which serve the use of disabled people or the charging of electric vehicles, for example".
The new law will "clear the way for the use of plug-in solar devices on balconies, terraces and roof gardens of millions of residential households in Germany", said Körnig. In the future, tenants will be entitled to the consent of the landlord or homeowners' association to install and use a technically safe plug-in solar device.
Important differences
The BSW takes this opportunity to point out that larger do-it-yourself kits are increasingly available, which are sold as "balcony power plants", but are, in fact, photovoltaic systems that must be connected by a specialist electrical company and registered with the grid operator.
The solar industry also emphasizes that it is technically not permissible and legally problematic to operate several solar devices in parallel. The legal simplifications created by the legislator apply to plug-in solar devices with typically one to two standard solar modules (300 to 400 watts each) and an inverter with a maximum connected load of 800 watts.
"In contrast to photovoltaic systems, plug-in solar devices are designed in such a way that they can be connected and used by laypersons because the output of the solar modules and the connected load of the inverter (AC output) are limited," explains Körnig.
Another important feature is that only systems without battery storage can be described as plug-in solar devices, as batteries require additional security and the installation location of a balcony power plant is usually not suitable for operating a battery storage system permanently. All systems with battery storage must still be installed by a qualified electrician and registered with the grid operator.
(anw)