Installing Solar Panels on Your Balcony: Is the Vertical Alternative the Future? | MyGuide

Enrico De Vries, founder of Balcony Sun, wants to use vertical solar panels to make apartment buildings more sustainable and to help landlords save money. Since classic solar panels are too heavy to attach to a balcony, he developed a lightweight panel that weighs only 23 kg.

Read also. Start-up develops a portable household battery for 1650 euros: the pros and cons.

One committee claims that it provides a yield of approximately 260 kWh per year. “A vertical panel captures enough sunlight. Analysis shows, for example, that vertically positioned solar panels produce more in winter than angled panels.

In addition, we use microtransformers that have a lower starting voltage than normal ones,” says the manager.

Savings tip. Digital meter: This is how you reduce your energy bill.

You can simply connect the balcony solar panels to a socket using a plug. This is permitted in the Netherlands for installations with a capacity of up to 600 watts per group, but in our country this is not possible.

“These plug-and-play systems are not really allowed in Belgium at the moment,” says Dirk Van Evercooren of the renewable energy sector association ODE. There are legitimate concerns about public safety and fire safety. Such systems can keep the network active and thus create a safety hazard when the network is closed to work on.”

“Cable delivery is always a potential source of problems. As a sector, we are not opposed to it if there is a legal and regulatory framework for this that guarantees safety.”

Dirk Van Evercooren doesn’t immediately see an important contribution to the sustainable energy transition for solar balcony panels. He also notes that vertical boards have a slightly lower yield. “With structural solutions such as energy sharing and energy communities, I believe we can make an even greater contribution.”

Helping friends or family to lower your electric bill? Determine the ideal price for the buyer and seller to share the energy.

The question is whether cities, municipalities, and community owners are willing to accept the idea of ​​vertical solar panels. “Solar panels on the balcony take some getting used to,” says Enrico de Vries. “In Hamburg and Berlin you can now see them in many places. The many requests we receive show that you will soon see them a lot in the Netherlands. At the moment there are still owners’ associations that do not allow solar panels for balconies, but since the Dutch government requires apartments to be more sustainability, this will soon have to change.”

Dirk Van Evercooren sees more benefits in BIPV as a complete part of the installation and therefore not plugged into the socket. BIPV stands for Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV), or solar power integrated into the building. This means that you combine sustainable energy generation and building functions in an intelligent way.

BIPV unites sustainable power generation while maintaining aesthetics. “It provides an opportunity to work on a larger scale and not create a chaotic picture.” For example, he points to a project in Denmark, where vertical solar panels are well integrated into the building and cityscape.

Stop the unlimited return of energy from your solar panels? This scenario is on the table in the Netherlands

Newly Installed Solar Panels: This is how you choose the most financially interesting energy supplier(s).

No more playing for your energy resource: will you soon be able to claim interest on very high advances?