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By the way: One reason why electricity from the grid is relatively expensive in Germany is that private consumers pay much higher prices than large, power-hungry companies. Effectively, consumers are subsidizing companies, which in turn can often profit from very low prices for power from solar generation, because companies can buy from exchange markets at spot prices, but private persons can't.
Balcony solar plants shift that tilted balance back a bit.
Next by the way: Access to these special prices for companies depends on the total amount of electricity used. Which adds a reverse-incentive: Under some circustamces it is cheaper to waste electricity in order to keep access to cheaper prices than to use less electricity. Because if you use less then you have to pay normal prices.
And after all this, they still piss and moan about "prohibitively high energy prices".
Good old Umverteilung, love it
Next best thing: German electric engineers to the rescue. Without regulations.
Regulations were very careful in the beginning, but now it is that basically anyone can plug in a system like this and register it.
To note, there were some technical challenges, of course the plug needs to be safe when it is not plugged in, and the system switches off when the power fails, which is also for safety - these are not autonomous or "island" systems though of course, solar can be used for that.
There are currently talks about tightening these regulations, to the point where it is no longer feasible to use these kind of systems :(
Black Panther MEME with VDE/ISO "We don't do that here"
With the next Revision of the ISO/VDE it can only get worse for this theme, because of overregulation.
Except for my lab. In whichever, I do whatever I want to do.
Which seemingly is a collective fortitude.
So how good is it? I'm pondering a 400W panel but I have 2 balconies, one for the morning sun, one from around 11h...
These systems tend toward 800 watts for about $600. Pay off is generally 4-6 years. With solar panels lasting for 30+ yrs, you gain a degree of power independence and a rough income of $100-200/yr.
1200w setups are legal in Utah, so you may be able to get one of their systems in the states. Ecoflow has one called the ecoflow stream..
Since the limit is 1200w in utah, what some people are doing is deploying 1200w into the active circuit, with another 1200w going fully into a battery. Since only one 1200w system is in use at a time, this is apparently allowed under the law.
In Germany you can get an 800W system, so two solar panels, a converter and cables for 250€. You usually need some sort of attachment as well, which is another 50€ or so. They are surprisingly cheap.
I know Germany have relaxed their laws but I'm in France, guess I have to wait until the "revolution" comes here.
Yes, in France the laws about these panels have actually become stricter last month. Big disappointment.
Ouch
On top of that, you can now get used ones for about half the new prices.