Mastodawn

Waldo Jaquith Jul 30, 2024

This is brilliant. In Germany, it's popular to buy €200 solar panel / inverter combos that plug into a nearby power outlet, feeding the power back into the grid, running their power meter backwards. "Installation" just takes a minute. Folks in apartments simply hang them from their balcony “like wet laundry.” Over 500,000 have been sold. With power at €0.25/kWh, the payback time is about 27 months—after that, it's just free electricity. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/business/germany-solar-panels-climate-change.html?unlocked_article_code=1._E0.zL83.1FCeoxOrFDBY&smid=url-share

Germans Combat Climate Change With D.I.Y. Solar Panels

Plug-and-play solar panels are popping up in yards and on balcony railings across Germany, driven by bargain prices and looser regulations.

The New York Times

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Ian Dees Jul 30, 2024

@waldoj at https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarDIY/comments/yj6kdo/balcony_pv_in_the_us/ they say:

> Balkonsolar is probably OK in Germany because the lines are buried and they don't have unexpected outages. Plus I believe the (required!) meters are regulated and won't feed the grid if no grid voltage is detected.

Very German

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vampirdaddy

@ian @waldoj
There are very rigid requirements for the shutoff times (<10ms), residual voltage drop (30ms to below 10V or so, from memory) and two redundant shutoff mechanisms (at least one with physical disconnect).

PowerOn / reconnect must wait at least 10s (IIRC), but has to be randomly spread over 5min after stable mains connection to prevent feeding spikes after an area outage is resolved.

There are norms for that in Germany (of course) 🤓