A DIY Solar Revolution Is Quietly Taking Place
What would you think about a DIY solar panel small enough to be easily installed on the side of your balcony or patio and then plugged into a wall socket? It could provide energy produced by the sun directly into your home. Each of the lightweight panels would produce only enough electricity to charge a laptop or run a small refrigerator, but it would be a start on independence from the grid.
In homes across Germany, as reported by the New York Times, small solar panels are powering a quiet transformation, bringing the green revolution into the hands of people without requiring them to make a large investment, find an electrician, or use heavy tools. In Germany, individual panels sell for as low as €200, or about $217, at big box stores. More than 500,000 of the systems have already been set up across Germany, and new laws that relaxed rules around solar panel installation have contributed to a boom in use. In the first six months of the year, the country added 9 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity, according to the Federal Network Agency, a German regulator.
DIY solar, also known as plug-in systems, involve routing the direct current generated by the panels to an inverter, which converts it to an alternating current. They can then be plugged into a conventional wall socket to feed power to a home.
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DIY solar systems offer a substitute for companies’ rising and expanding electricity delivery fees. Across the world, delivery fees have climbed by about 3% annually while the cost of energy supply has only gone up by 5% over the past 15 years.
The EU continues to seek pathways away from Russian natural gas dependence. One goal is to quadruple the amount of power generated through photovoltaic sources to 600 gigawatts by 2030 — Germany intends to reach a third of that amount at the same time. Germany is expected to add more solar power capacity than any other European country in 2024, according to Rystad Energy.
Solar is quite appealing to the EU, as solar transforms the sun’s energy to power after converting it from DC to AC. This reduces the reliance of the building on traditional grid electricity, lowers utility costs, and increases energy independence. In 2020, the EU imported almost 58% of the energy it consumed because its own production could only meet 42% of its daily needs. That translates into a broad search in the EU for any energy source that is renewable and can be used indefinitely.
However, the expensive cost of installation and the low conversion efficiency of solar modules have been two of the critical downsides of traditional solar systems.
Balconies may be a bridge to solar systems across locales, as balconies already have a vital role in achieving various environmental building functions. While designed for optimal uses, such semi-open spaces provide indoor air and thermal conditions beyond the natural ventilation of spaces. Balconies can reduce the building facade temperature, heat transfer, and direct sun radiation into the internal spaces, along with shadowing.
Through proper orientation toward the sun, balconies can provide optimal opportunities to make use of solar energy for electrical power.
A 2024 research study concludes that the development of renewable sources such as plug-in devices for electronic and electrical equipment and electrical energy storage has advanced significantly, and now these devices can be used in numerous households. Their investment pays off in a relatively short time, ranging from 4 to 9 years. The balcony DIY solar system, they say, proves to be a sensible solution in multi-apartment buildings, especially for consumers with higher and consistent electricity consumption throughout the year.
Some of the solar panels sold in Germany are made by European companies, but most are produced in China, whose dominance of the global industry allows it to deliver solar panels at increasingly lower costs, said Nicholas Lua, an analyst with Rystad Energy. “Small-scale panels have benefited from the same economies of scale that China’s solar manufacturing system has at its disposal.”
In Germany, individual plug-in panels sell for as low as €200, or about $217, at big box stores. Complete sets, including mountings, an inverter, and cables, are about twice that cost.
Solago is a German startup that sells rooftop solar panels and these DIY solar/plug-in versions. After first starting out in a small storefront in a suburb of Düsseldorf, the company now is housed in a block-sized warehouse, employs 50 people, and has 8 trucks for deliveries across Germany and Austria.
The Solago website explains how DIY solar is easy and affordable for the average consumer. “Would you like to generate your own electricity and protect the environment and your wallet? Become an energy producer with our balcony power plants! Our complete sets, certified in Germany, come with everything you need for easy installation.” These “balcony power plants,” the company continues, fit any mounting system and are ready to use without any special technical expertise. “Simply plug them into the socket, produce your own green electricity straight away, and save on electricity costs.”
DIY solar is also popular in the Netherlands, and interest is growing in France, Italy, and Spain, in part driven by a steady drop in prices.
Another DIY solar possibility is popping up in which solar panels placed on windows as shutters can produce over 4% of the annual energy consumed by the sample flat. A 2023 study extended an initial finding to predict that the residential windows in the 500-flat mass housing where their sample flat was located have the potential to generate at least 53.73 MWh of electrical energy per year. This generated energy could prevent the emission of 14,010,632 tons of CO2 annually.
The use of glazed balconies as a heating strategy to capture solar gains and reduce heat losses in a climate with cold winters is also being explored. The potential contribution of glazed balconies, a traditional passive heating system, is in the R&D phase in Portugal. These systems can improve contemporary constructions’ thermal behavior and comfort conditions in mild temperate climates. Results indicate that this system can significantly enhance a building’s energy efficiency, reduce energy needs for heating and cooling by up to 47%, and extend periods of thermal comfort indoors by nearly 900 hours per year compared to buildings with non-glazed balconies.
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