One Million German Homes Now Powered by Balcony Solar

Germany has quietly become home to over one million mini solar power plants hanging from apartment balconies and mounted on terraces across the country.

Credit: Michael Paetzold | Creative Commons by-sa 4.0

These plug-and-play solar systems, called 'Balkonkraftwerke' in German, demonstrates how regular people are taking clean energy into their own hands. Plus, it makes the benefits of renewable energy accessible to renters.

This balcony solar revolution represents a major shift in how Germans generate their own electricity, especially for the millions who rent their homes. It is partially driven by the fact that the mini solar systems are simple enough for anyone to install without the need to call an electrician - and typically includes two solar panels and a small device called a micro-inverter that converts the sun’s energy into electricity. The next driver is that the systems at a cost of between €400 and €800 (roughly $460 to $920). The whole thing simply plugs into a regular wall outlet, just like plugging in TV.

German laws restrict the installations to a maximum of 800 watts, but that's still enough to power most household appliances

The investment is generally recouped after 2 to 4 years and, thereafter, means that the electricity is free. A knock-on effect of this private solar boom is that battery storage is becoming increasingly popular too. The percentage of German balcony solar buyers who also purchase batteries doubled from 20 percent in 2023 to 40 percent in 2025. Batteries let people store extra solar power during sunny days and use it at night or during cloudy weather, maximizing the value of their investment.

It looks like Germany is well on the way to replicating what happened in Australia. Admittedly, the land Down Under is rather more sunny, but roughly 4 million households in there - almost half of all homes - have rooftop solar arrays (as opposed to balcony systems), which collectively generate more electricity than the country’s coal-fired power stations. Often, more electricity is produced than needed.

Now, under the Australian government’s ‘solar sharer’ plan, energy companies will be forced to offer free electricity to customers (even those without solar panels) for three hours in the middle of the day. This, they think, will also drive battery installations.