“My goodness, if everyone who was arguing about balcony power plants would just hang two modules on the balcony, it would be so much gained. I equipped my whole family with them during that time.” A reader wrote me these sentences who had followed the extensive reporting of the last few days and was surprised that Schuko plugs and counters rotating backwards had been discussed since 2019. That network operators organize such a breakdown when registering in view of a few kilowatt hours that flow into the network as a surplus.
The discussion has also tired me, I would much rather report on new inverters with better data analysis, for example. Or about falling module prices, instead of constantly about this secondary theater of war. But what has been published in the last few days makes me hopeful that the end of the discussions is near. First the head of the BNetzA, then the VDE itself, speak out in favor of the Schuko plug. The VDE also requires a higher de minimis limit of 800 watts. In the comments on my colleague’s article, several readers stated that they had checked the calendar first. But it showed January, not April 1st. So it’s true: the small niche product gets big advocates. This does not come as a complete surprise, because the core of the VDE is now what many operators are already doing.
The VDE suggestion that devices should be registered online directly with the Federal Network Agency in the future and no longer decentrally with the network operator is also nice. What the network operators have currently done with creepy forms is a real impertinence. The registration of 800-watt systems can then be used directly as a test run for a second phase: Because even with the large systems, the provincial princes at the municipal utilities urgently need to be disempowered and the tasks centralized. The fact that currently valuable workers from photovoltaic companies are blocked from filling out poorly designed forms is no longer up to date.
Balcony power plants today like the Aldi PC once did
What happened on German balconies in 2022 is unique. And that is not a subjective perception in a technology-interested filter bubble. The balcony power plant has arrived in the mass market. This is proven by offers such as those from the discounter Netto, which caused a stir: PV modules on the cover of a Netto brochure (although only in mail order so far), that is a turning point. Will the daily updated PV prices soon become a topic of conversation at the German breakfast table in the same way as the prices of milk, butter and pork fillet? I wouldn’t mind, it wouldn’t be the first era that a discounter opened: When Aldi had the first PC on the cover of the brochure in the nineties, the PC had finally arrived.
Evidence of the importance of plug-in power generation systems can also be found in hard figures. In the market master data register of the Federal Network Agency, in which operators have to register (and, as is well known, not always do this), you can filter for systems under 1 kilowatt peak and download the data piecemeal. Putting the CSV snippets together and adding up the performance yields remarkable results. There are a total of 103,000 of the small systems, which together reach over 65,000 kW peak. The most remarkable finding: over 50,000 kilowatts were added in 2022 alone. And the young year 2023 builds on this: 2800 kilowatts have already been connected to the grid after 12 days. Most of the constantly sold out net systems are probably not included there. And word of the reduction in VAT from 19 to 0 percent for photovoltaics has not yet got around everywhere and should trigger the next boost. To be on the safe side again: Since 1.1. the components are exempt from VAT. So get it now before the prices go up again!
On the threshold
103,000 systems sounds like a lot, but it accounts for just 0.25 percent of the approximately 40 million households. They are thus able to cover a large part of the basic consumption during the day themselves. Can one really speak of a mass market? Not quite yet, but it’s imminent. Because one must not forget the viral effect. Photovoltaics is highly contagious. A careless sentence at the family dinner at Christmas and the relatives are already queuing up and asking whether they can get inverters and modules. As in the Aldi PC days, it is the tech-savvy who become helpers and advisors. And at the latest when the module is up and the meter is up during the day, word will get around among the neighbors as well. And at friends of neighbors. At some point there is the next one with a knack for technology, the next germ cell is created. And not a few can’t get enough after 600 watts, dare to take the next step and have the entire roof covered. Incidentally, balcony power plants are also an advertising medium for large systems.
The final hurdles
There is no doubt that there is movement in the market, delivery problems seem to have been overcome for the time being and there is reason to hope for an improvement in the long-standing controversial issues. It’s all ok? Not quite yet. Assuming that the VDE not only includes the Schuko plug in its own standard and that the legislator reduces the bureaucracy for the network operator, there is still another hurdle for everyone who does not call their own roof. As soon as you want to install the modules outside of the balcony, for example on the railing, the landlord must agree. And inaccessible property managers and conservative landlords only hate one thing more than ball games on the lawn and baby carriages in the stairwell: colorful privacy screens and satellite dishes on their elegant balconies. A photovoltaic module? Ugly, besides, we didn’t do it that way before.
Readers keep telling us that rethinking has not yet started everywhere in the housing industry. Anyone who bans balcony power plants today because the uniform appearance of the multi-family block is disturbed must simply be accused of malice. Because he denies his tenants access to a device that lowers the electricity bill and pays for itself after a few years. And he refuses to participate in a decentralized energy transition. All one can wish for those who prevent this is that either the legislature intervenes and limits landlords’ right of objection, or that one day the housing market develops in such a way that tenants can once again choose the best apartment from a wide range of offers.
Even the landlords can no longer stop the success of the small power plants. A further upswing is imminent for them in 2023. Hopefully, like the family PC once was, they will soon be so commonplace that nobody talks about them anymore. In 10 years, two PV modules could be a natural part of a household, like an electricity meter or a washing machine. We are on a good way.
(yum)
