This is some good solarpunk stuff this! Balkonkraftwerk refers to a small, electricity generating, balcony power system, popular in Germany. It consists of one or more solar modules, mounting material, an inverter, a low-voltage connecting cable and a plug for connection to the end circuit in the grid of a final consumer. The electricity generated can be used immediately, with unused electricity flowing unfunded into the public grid from the consumer’s connection. (Via Wikipedia – https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkonkraftwerk)

It’s been said many times “We need to treat Climate Change like a war effort,” looking at every part of the economy and society and getting everyone to muck in on the solutions. This feels to me very much part of that spirit. And very SolarPunk, allowing everyone to participate in sustainable solutions.

Yes, we still need to change the whole economic system and we need to go after the worst CO2 polluters and this isn’t not going to make a big dent in CO2 emissions but it’s good to see. It’s nice that renters can get some benefits from solar, and this framework makes it reasonable easy to install. There are also more emotional benefits, as mentioned in this GRIST article “For lots of people, energy is just something that comes out of your socket,” Holenweger said. “You never think about how it gets there or how it works.” The systems don’t include battery storage, so the juice they generate must be used immediately, leading people to plan the best time to, say, run the washing machine to ensure they’re using renewable energy. In that way, it becomes something of a game. Many balcony solar kits feature an app to track daily energy generation, providing what has, for many people, become a scorecard. “They screenshot that, they send it around to their Facebook groups, family WhatsApp groups. They’re super proud,” Gründinger said.

There are technical caveats too. People should only be doing this on the right balconies with reasonable sunlight to ensure ERoEI is good, but imagine if we started designing all our homes with this in mind or got better at retrofitting older buildings with Solar. Residents could also start adding home storage, aggregating and sharing their resources via P2P networks. A bit like what we are seeing in developing countries: https://solshare.com/solgrid/ That would be cool.

---

Note:

This post was created in #WordPress and can be viewed in the #Fedivers at: @owgf.org@owgf.org

OWGF has a Fediverse companion profile at: https://mastodon.world/@OWGF

OWGF is also on #Pixelfed here: https://pixelfed.social/OWGFhttps://pixelfed.social/OWGF