They are easy to install, and knock chunks off electricity bills. It may not be Romeo and Juliet, but Spain’s balcony scene is heating up as the country embraces what has hitherto been a mainly German love affair with DIY plug-in solar panels.
Panels have already been installed on about 1.5m German balconies, where they are so popular the term Balkonkraftwerk (balcony power plant) has been coined.
Manufacturers say that installing a couple of 300-watt panels will give a saving of up to 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill. With an outlay of €400-800 and with no installation cost, the panels could pay for themselves within six years.
In Spain, where two thirds of the population live in apartments and installing panels on the roof requires the consent of a majority of the building’s residents, this DIY technology has obvious advantages.
With solar balconies, no such consent is required unless the facade is listed as of historic interest or there is a specific prohibition from the residents’ association or the local authority. Furthermore, as long as the installation does not exceed 800 watts it doesn’t require certification, which can cost from €100 to €400, depending on the area.
“The beauty of the solar balconies is they are flexible, cheap and plug straight into the domestic network via a converter, so you don’t have to pay for the installation,” says Santiago Vernetta, CEO of Tornasol Energy, one of Spain’s main suppliers.
As the cost of solar panels continues to fall, Vernetta says the labour cost of installation is often greater than the price of the materials.
As with all solar power systems, balcony power only works in daylight and a battery storage system can add at least €1,000 to the installation cost.
Raquel Paule, director of the Madrid-based Fundación Renovables, says the increasingly popular energy communities, where residents can benefit from solar installations on the roofs of nearby schools and sports centres, are another way around the problem of majority consent.
“Balcony power is another piece in the puzzle,” she says. “They are another step towards using the built environment to generate electricity.”
Vernetta says the vertical surface area of cities is far greater than that of the roofs and that, in Spain, balcony panels benefit more than roof panels from the low winter sun.
Cities such as Helsinki are already experimenting with buildings with solar panel cladding.
“Plug-in solar is part of the whole array of options,” says Michael Schmela, director of market intelligence at SolarPower Europe, an umbrella group for 320 European solar power organisations.
“What’s special about balcony power is it’s so versatile and you can install it as part of the building.
“This is the next step. The technology is there but the regulations and architects have to embrace it. There are so many solutions and balcony solar is the latest trend.”
Paule emphasises that self-sufficiency, whether in individual households or energy communities, is a vital part of energy transition, especially for cities, which depend on outside sources for about 97% of their electricity.
“Cities need to become more self-sufficient by generating more,” she says. “Energy transition involves a change from cities depending on a centralised system with big companies supplying electricity to a more widely distributed, more democratic and more participative model, and this is what the energy companies are scared of.”
“Big energy companies should be pushing for renewables because they’ve played a big part in getting us into this situation,” she says. “Instead of creating obstacles they should be facilitators by giving everyone access to the grid that they control.”
While some towns and regions have offered small financial incentives, the German boom has been fuelled by the rise in electricity costs after Russia invaded Ukraine and the ruling that neighbours have no right to object to balcony panels.
Although balcony power is only a fraction of its solar energy capacity, Germany remains far and away the European leader in solar installation. It has set a target of sourcing 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030. The EU target is 42% , which Schmela believes will be achieved.
Next in line after Germany in the solar stakes are Spain, Italy and Poland, while balcony power is gaining in popularity in France. Meanwhile, Belgium, which outlawed plug-in solar devices over fears of having unregistered systems feeding into the grid, will lift its ban.
“For years solar has been the fastest-growing and cheapest in the energy sector,” Schmela says, adding that what is needed now is battery development and greater cohesion between wind, solar and other renewables.
Vernetta says Spain has been slow to catch on to balcony power, but remains confident the technology will take off.
“If 1.5 million Germans have bought solar balcony kits there must be something in it,” he says.
