energy
Number of balcony power plants doubled
Copy the current link
Lower prices and simplifications have further fueled the boom in small solar systems. The million mark could still fall in the first half of the year.
The number of balcony power plants in Germany more than doubled last year. At the end of the year, more than 780,000 of the small solar systems were registered as being in operation in the Federal Network Agency’s market master data register.
Together, the systems, which are officially called plug-in solar devices, now have an installed capacity of almost 0.7 gigawatts. The expansion last year was enormous: more than 430,000 new systems went into operation. The numbers may increase slightly due to late registrations.
“The solar boom on Germany’s balconies could even intensify,” says the managing director of the Federal Solar Industry Association, Carsten Körnig. If this forecast is correct, the millionth balcony power plant could go online in the first half of the year.
Körnig expects that the installation of plug-in solar devices on balconies of rental or condominiums will really take off. Only last fall did the legislature oblige landlords and apartment owners to generally approve plug-in solar devices. There are also many products and prices have continued to fall. The latter often leads to the purchase of more powerful devices.
Don’t worry about the next federal government
Körnig isn’t worried about the upcoming federal election either: he doesn’t expect “that the energy policy of a future federal government will worsen the conditions for the construction of ‘balcony power plants’,” says Körnig.
There is “great agreement among the parties to enable tenants and apartment owners to have a bit of self-sufficiency and active participation in the energy transition with their own plug-in solar device.” Many of the regulations meant, above all, less bureaucracy and cost savings and were therefore met with “goodwill across all parties”.
Germany has also become a lead market for balcony power plants, says Körnig. “Around the world, there is great interest in seeing how the regulatory and technical framework conditions promote the safe use of these systems.”
NRW ahead of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg
If you look at the distribution of balcony power plants in Germany, the most populous federal states are at the top. There are 157,000 in operation in North Rhine-Westphalia and 119,000 in Bavaria. Lower Saxony with 103,000 and Baden-Württemberg with 102,000 are almost on a par. The city states of Bremen and Hamburg as well as the poorly populated Saarland are at the bottom of the list with values under 10,000 systems.
dpa
Source: Stern