Photovoltaic panels are no longer fashionable. A new method for capturing solar energy has appeared. You just need a balcony

What do people who have installed photovoltaic panels think? Demand quadrupled in 2022 and will double in 2023

Photovoltaic panels have not even managed to produce cheap energy, because they have gone out of trend. That’s because a new method for capturing solar energy has emerged.

Almost half a million plug-in solar systems are installed in Germany, most of them occupying a perfect place on the balconies of buildings.

What are solar balconies?

Solar balconies are just one element of the wider solar transition process in Europe, explains Jan Osenberg, policy consultant at SolarPower Europe.

Solar balconies differ from solar roofs in size. Basically, balcony-mount systems consist of a panel or two that plug into the outlet.

These units produce about 10% of the energy that classic roof-mounted photovoltaic panels provide.

So far, 50,000 new photovoltaic devices have been installed. This boom stems from Germany’s “very strong solar culture,” according to an expert consulted by Euronews.

How to install

“We consider them elements of solar roofs, but also something different. Basically, we look at them as a trend for all possible solar energy generation infrastructure”added the expert.

The photovoltaic panel for the balcony is much easier to install: you buy the kit online and you don’t need an installer to install it, unlike roof panels, which only authorized technicians can install to avoid fire risks.

Germany was one of the first countries to invest in solar technology and now has the largest solar power production in Europe.

The list of structures suitable for plug-in solar panels includes trains, highways, parking lots, car roofs, building facades – almost any structure can capture solar energy.

The advantages of solar balconies

• they have accumulators for storing the energy produced, which are mounted between the panel and the inverter
• have apps that install on your phone
• in the case of the tenant in an apartment, if he moves, the man does not lose the investment, but takes it with him.