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Permitless plug-in solar panels that fit on your balcony or deck are gaining traction in the US (apnews.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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I didn't realize it was now possible to get balcony-style solar in the US besides Utah. One the systems they mention in the article seems to be plug-n-play without any permits required, as it only supplements power to your house, and doesn't send it out to the grid.

Seems to be quite a bit more expensive than the kits available in Europe, unfortunately. But perhaps a good option for those who don't want to setup a small DIY solar system using a small battery as a buffer, and hooking up appliances to it directly with the help of an Automatic Transfer Switch so that it can switch to the grid at night.

At least with the cheapest kit mentioned in the article, if you were to get one before December 31, 2025, you would be able to get the 30% federal solar tax credit (your state may have additional tax credits too), which would bring the total cost of the 800w system down to $1292, or $1.61/watt. I'm not even sure if that company is the cheapest option for plug-in-solar, but that'd be quite a bit cheaper than rooftop solar, at least in the US.

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[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

These are actually illegal in some EU countries, at least here in Denmark.

https://ing.dk/artikel/balcony-power-plants-are-booming-germany-illegal-denmark

[+] trane69@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have done work with a large industrial plant that wants to be able to connect its local generation to the grid in order to supplement what it gets from the grid. The amount of permitting and everything required is surprising. Unfortunately, there are legitimate concerns about putting extra sources of electricity onto the grid. Hypothetically speaking, if poorly engineered sources of energy were placed on to the grid en masse, it has a potential to cause problems that ultimately bring down the entire grid in ways that make it quite difficult for the grid to come back up.

Effectively, you can say that the electric grid is not just a big truck that you can stack more power on, there are a number of precise things that need to be done right, and if they aren't things get really bad really fast.

This isn't related to that, but earlier this year there was a major grid collapse in Spain that almost turned into an even bigger collapse, and that was just related to conventional renewables rather than a bunch of individual households connecting to the grid.

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 points 1 day ago

And to be clear, conventional renewables such as solar and wind would not direct causal elements in the collapse, they were second order elements. One of the big issues was a lack of spinning synchronous generators, and one of the reasons that there would have been a lack of spinning synchronous generators is that things like solar were using igbt inverters instead. That also means that other conventional renewables such as hydroelectric we're not implicated because hydroelectric has large synchronous spitting generators.

[–] Ontimp@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago

Weird. As the article says, here in Germany they are seemingly appearing out of thin air wherever you look. I still remember how my parents were among the first to have solar panels 20 years ago, now when I look down on my village form the nearby hill there are panels on at wlst half the roofs and balconies

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

The DIY option is simpler than that. Just hook some heavy draw appliances to the solar generator permanently and plug the generator into the grid to pass through electricity when the battery drains to a defined level. When solar charges it to a higher level (usually +10%) it triggers the direct use of solar again.