this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
65 points (100.0% liked)

Germany - Deutschland, but in English

846 readers
100 users here now

The place to talk/ask about stuff in Germany in English.

Rules

  • No AI-generated posts/texts (especially without a flag, generally no AI blog posts etc.)

  • No sock puppet discussions. (Accounts younger than 7 days which suddenly spawn in a discussion and all push the same agenda)

  • Please consider using sources for (little known) facts in discussions

Wiki: https://lemmygermany.github.io/wiki/

Many thanks to @Vittelius@feddit.de for creating this!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
godless@feddit.org
viking@infosec.pub
Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org
65
Balcony solar is all the rage in Germany. Why not in the US? (www.canarymedia.com)
submitted 2 days ago by VioletTea@lemmy.world to c/germany@feddit.org
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That is not your bog-standard balcony solar installation and a 5kWh battery is way too much. You can get a 800W installation for 250-350€:

Let's say 300€. At 0,30€/kWh you reach your ROI at 1000kWh produced. Production depents on your locality, but it should be between 800-1100kWh for a 800W installation. So it takes approx. 1 year to get your investment back. The rest is pure profit. Yes, that might take a bit longer in practice. You are not using the full 800W at noon on workdays while you're away at work. You might not have perfekt alignment with the sun. And so on, but it is really quick.

If you are paying 0,15€/kWh, you might need 2 years to reach that ROI. That still is an awesome investment. Take a small sum of money. Invest one or two hours of work installing it. And if you are calculating with German prices and 10 years lifetime, you get 1000kWh a year @ 0,30€/kWh for 10 years = 3000€.

[–] spechter@feddit.org 1 points 19 hours ago

I ran fine with 2kWh storage and 1.6kWp, so yeah anything bigger than that might idle and therefore just delay breaking even.

not using the full 800W at noon on workdays

That's why I would still recommend any battery. Not just to save some energy into the evening where electricity prices regularly spike in germany, but also to store in short-term when running a laundry machine on a so-so day.

Nonetheless, those small solar plants are likely always viable and I do regularly recommend them even if not asked :)