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Balkonkraftwerk

Brandon Donnelly avatar Brandon Donnelly

Germany has, over the last 2 years, really gotten into balcony solar panels :

The ease of installation and a potent mix of government policies to encourage adoption has made the wee arrays hugely popular. More than  550,000 of them  dot cities and towns nationwide, half of which were installed in 2023. During the first half of this year, Germany added  200 megawatts  of balcony solar. Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop, but the cumulative effect is nudging the country toward its clean energy goals while giving apartment dwellers, who make up  more than half  of the population, an easy way to save money and address the climate crisis.

Of course, there's only so much that panels like these can produce. By some estimates, a "large well-positioned balcony" might only produce 15% of a home's electricity needs. But hey, that's still something, and it seems like something that Toronto should be looking at.

We also have balconies.

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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.