‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

www.theguardian.com ‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

Balcony solar panels can save 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill and, with vertical surface area in cities larger than roof space, the appeal is clear

Crosspost from https://beehaw.org/post/17685168

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12h ago

‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

www.theguardian.com /environment/2024/dec/18/if-a-million-germans-have-them-there-must-be-something-in-it-how-balcony-solar-is-taking-off

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2mo ago

‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

www.theguardian.com /environment/2024/dec/18/if-a-million-germans-have-them-there-must-be-something-in-it-how-balcony-solar-is-taking-off

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2mo ago

‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

www.theguardian.com /environment/2024/dec/18/if-a-million-germans-have-them-there-must-be-something-in-it-how-balcony-solar-is-taking-off

176 25

34 comments

I dunno if the number of Germans supporting a thing is a good marker to follow though.
- As a German myself I always enjoy WW2 jokes.
- I'm not sure if the height of Germans is a good marker for a stove.
- Yeah, because they did ww2 80 years ago. Look at me, I'm ~~beating a dead horse~~ making a hilarious joke. /s

What does their height have to do with this?

It’s really the 20s again.

Probably doesn't help the environment unless a battery is added, the bigger the better.
- what?
  Effectively cutting 30% of electricity going into the household isn't going to help the environment? It means less transmission losses. It means less grid infrastructure which consists largely of copper and steel, which both produce a lot of emissions in their production.
  Even if it did nothing for the environment, local energy independence is still such a massive boon to any community that it can't be overlooked.
  
  While the panels are important, the main reason why its important to also have the battery component is because most people tend to work when daylight is out (where the house is theoretically using up the least amount of power) thus, if one didn't have a battery, its pushing the power back into the grid. At the same time, power usage tends to spike when it gets closer to night, where solar is ineffective, and relies thus back on the grid if there's no battery. While personally(not the original person) would never claim it does essentially nothing, the battery component is extremely critical for energy independence as the time period people want to minimize grid usage the most should be during the peak hours, which inconveniently is when the sun is down.
  
  Your are mostly wrong. Infrastructure is still required because sun isn't shining through night and short cloudy winter days. Also Germany has plenty of solar and other renewables power already, specially during day. So it could be that almost all the electricity during sunny days are already coming from renewables. This balcony thing is far from independence.
- The problem being that for many people bigger is not possible. If you don't own the house, you don't have any other possibilities. And even without a battery: if you time washing and or drying your clothes right, there is quite a possibility to save money.
- The grid is the battery.
  The power stations put out 30% less power because of this input to the grid. This helps the environment a lot.
- The idea here is that you're directly pulling from the panels as first priority to take a chunk off your utility bill. The energy it provides never needs stored, and it makes the load lighter for transporting green energy from elsewhere.
- This certainly isn't a solution, but can probably improve the lives of invidual households, and still means that a little less electricity comes from fossil fuels.
  
  I didn't say anything about the former while the latter is uncertain as Germany already has a shit-ton of solar and other renewables power installed. The true benefit would be to store the energy for use when there is no sun - that would more likely reduce burning of the fossil fuel.

34 comments