More than one million Germans have installed affordable plug-in balcony solar panels, turning apartments into small-scale clean energy producers. Costing around $235, these easy-to-use systems are helping households cut electricity bills while accelerating Germany’s transition to renewable energy.

  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    here is a ready made kit, but if you put together your own panels, cables, charge controller, battery, and micro inverter, you could get one up for cheaper. The amount you’ll actually save from this kind of setup is highly questionable, though.

      • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        13 days ago

        you would have to look at used setups in your area. a single panel, controller, and inverter (which appears to be the “balcony solar” setup discussed in the article, as opposed to mine which sits on a big rack in my yard) might be able to come down to $300 but you’d have to search. I built my own 400w setup for about $1k but that was years ago and the prices have gone up.

      • SootySootySoot [any]@hexbear.net
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        13 days ago

        That does seem ludicrously high. The first result when I look for an equivalent setup here in the UK on Amazon is about 600 dollars for an ostensibly 800W kit. US needs slightly different electronics specs but that’s not a huge thing, and surely even the biggest import fees to the US wouldn’t be 900 dollars??? Is this like a chinese trade restriction thing