Solar energy: one million balcony power plants | Stern.de

There are around one million balcony power plants in Germany. Their number has doubled within a year, as can be seen from figures from the market register register and estimates by the Federal Association of Solar Industry (BSW). “We assume that the millionth plug-in solar device is already in operation because late registrations are still at the Federal Network Agency,” says BSW general manager Carsten Körnig.

Balcony power plants – officially they are called plug -in solar devices – are small solar systems. They are often attached to balconies – hence the name – but this is not mandatory. Your connection performance is limited to 800 watts. In the sunshine, you feed your performance into the owner’s home network via a socket, which has to obtain less electricity from its supplier.

This saving is the financial yield of the system. If it creates more than you use, the surplus is fed into the network without a fee. According to BSW, devices with its own power storage are not considered plug -in solar devices, and something different applies to them.

The market master data register showed – as of Tuesday – 975,583 facilities in operation. Another around 20,000 are temporarily or final. The numbers of the register typically run behind the actual number of balcony power plants. The Federal Network Agency also points out this.

The reason for this is on the one hand the one -month late registration deadline, on the other hand, some systems are simply never registered despite obligation. Half a million was cracked in early June 2024, so almost exactly a year ago.

An end to growth is not in sight, says the BSW. A relevant part of the population could imagine setting up such a system.

Regulations of the old federal government also contribute to this. In recent years, this has significantly simplified the use of balcony power plants, including by means of a permission to be allowed by landlords and apartment owners. The original initial spark for the boom of the systems was the high electricity prices after the Ukraine war started.

Hope for the city centers

“After solar roofs have long been standard in home settlements, the solar boom on balconies will now increasingly shape the image of the inner cities,” says BSW general manager Körnig. “Always broader sections of the population benefit from the solar energy transition.” Depending on the costs, location and your own electricity consumption, the investment generally pay for itself after a few years. This also contributes to the fact that prices have dropped significantly in recent years.

Balcon power plants are particularly important for the energy transition because they give people the opportunity to take part and benefit from it. Their share of nationwide electricity generation is rather low. Together, the currently registered systems come to a maximum installed output of around 0.9 gigawatts. All solar systems in Germany – including roofs, open spaces and the like – get more than a hundred times.

Most are available in NRW and Bavaria

Most of the nationwide balcony power plants are in operation in North Rhine-Westphalia with 194,077. This is followed by Bavaria with 148,284 entries in the market master data register. Here, too, the fact that the actual numbers should be a bit larger, for example NRW has probably already exceeded the limit of 200,000. In the fight for third place, Lower Saxony currently has 127,665 with 127,879 plants registered in operation in front of Baden-Württemberg.

This is followed by Hesse with 73,898, Rhineland-Palatinate (58,085), Saxony (54,415), Schleswig-Holstein (41.106) and Brandenburg with 34,157 facilities. In Saxony-Anhalt there are 26,576, in Thuringia 25,706 and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 20,838. Berlin comes to 18.445, followed by Saarland with 12,130. Very few plants can be found in Hamburg with 7.202 and Bremen with 5,118. The density is lower in city states – including because fewer people have suitable places for installation.