alt Hacker NewsSolar Balconies Take Europe by Storm
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Hehe "Balkonkraftwerk", available from Lidl for €250 (see TFA). This makes me unreasonably happy for some reason.
Related:
Iran war sparks renewables boom as Europeans rush to buy solar, heat pumps, EVs
I really hope these become legal in Canada.
Right now it seems Utah is the only jurisdiction in North America where they are
The only negative thing I feel about all of this is that we're doing now. Once the glaciers are farked, the snow is going and the mass die offs are started. Better late than never they say, but why the hell didn't we just invest in this in the 1990s?
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> They come with small inverters to convert the DC output of the solar panels into AC power, which plug straight into an existing home power socket.
Hopefully these inverters are smart enough to cut the feed if the AC mains power goes out, to avoid backfeeding utility lines that may be under repair.
I have 2kW of panels on my balcony and 4kWh of batteries. I'm happy with the setup. I expect it to pay for itself in just a few years. The only thing I wish it had is open APIs to control the inverter and the batteries, ideally over bluetooth, so that I'm not forced to use an app.