Baden-Württemberg, Germany: Michael Breuninger stands on the balcony of his apartment, where solar panels are installed. Photo: Felix Kästle/dpa (Photo by Felix Kästle/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
As energy prices continue to climb and many families struggle financially, there are three tricks from Europe you can adopt to cut your bills while making a more sustainable home. All of these tricks revolve around the fact that solar energy, according to the International Energy Agency, is now the cheapest electricity in history. This is true without subsidies of any kind.
Solar is now a well proven technology as the panels last 25 years or more under warranty. Consider solar as an investment – you make an upfront deposit and then earn multiples of that investment over decades of energy savings. As the cost of electricity is escalating twice as fast as inflation according to NPR this makes solar a particularly good investment opportunity. Major firms like Apple, Google and Amazon are using solar energy to rake in savings and so can the average home owner. Most homeowners in the U.S. don’t have any solar, yet in Europe solar installations have exploded.
In Europe, solar has managed to be relatively a-political with voters of every party because it is sustainable and offers a guaranteed financial return. You see the levelized cost of electricity from solar panels is super low – essentially the dollar per kilowatt hour that you pay for solar over the life of the system is less than the cost of grid power pretty much everywhere in North America. You pocket the difference. For example, even in worst case scenarios like cold and cloudy Michigan you are better off financially with solar and would be expected to save hundreds of dollars a year on electric bills.
Trick 1: Buy As Much Solar as You Can
To make the most of a solar investment, you want it to be as large as possible. You can do this by electrifying your home. If you connect your solar to a heat pump you can provide all of your home’s heating needs. You can transition from a gas water heater to an instantaneous electric water heater or a heat pump water heater. Finally, you can convert to an electric car and charge it at home. All of these changes normally make economic sense on their own, but if you combine them with low-cost solar power you really can rake in the savings.
Trick 2: Solar Fences
The average roof has more than double the space you need to provide your electric needs. If you solar-charge your electric vehicle and put in heat pumps for cooling and heating you might run out of roof space for solar. If you don’t have enough unshaded roof space, yet still have a yard, you can try fence-based solar. In Austria and Germany fenced-based solar has taken off. They literally make fences out of solar panels. If you need a fence for your pool for safety anyway, why not make it out of solar panels? Then you get power and privacy.
A fence of solar panels along a garden of a proprety, in Amsterdam. (Photo by Ramon van Flymen / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by RAMON VAN FLYMEN/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
ANP/AFP via Getty Images
You don’t have to be rich to take advantage of this idea. A study I co-authored showed you can mount solar to any conventional fencing system and it will hold up mechanically even to absurd wind speeds. This is actually one of the least expensive racking systems. If you have an existing fence, you simply need four metal zip ties to anchor the solar panel to the fence (pack of 100 available on Amazon for under $10). This completely eliminates the cost of solar racking, which is now one of the most expensive parts of a solar racking system. Most people would even feel comfortable with this as a do-it-yourself project.
Trick 3: Balcony Solar
Not everyone is a homeowner. What if you are living in an apartment or renting — is it still possible to take advantage of solar investments?
Similarly, not everyone can afford the upfront capital of a solar system, particularly if it means powering a heat pump and EV as well as the households electric? What if you only have enough to buy one or two solar panels to start?
The European answer to all of these questions is: “Yes!
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Stralsund: Balcony solar. Stefan Sauer/dpa (Photo by Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Balcony solar is made up of plug-and-play solar panels attached to small microinverters. This allows them to be plugged into normal plugs of apartment balconies or terraces. The system generates electricity from sunlight and plugs into a standard household outlet. It is so easy that most people install the panels themselves, which makes this method an even better financial deal than rooftop solar because you don’t have to pay for the installer.
These systems are small — normally less than 1kW or just a few panels. People in France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Spain and Luxembourg have all gone crazy for balcony solar. Germany, however, has taken it really seriously. Germany is the leading country in Europe for balcony solar energy, Grist reported in 2024 there were at least half a million balconies with solar panels, a number that has swelled to an estimated three million units installed and a cumulative capacity of approximately 2.4 gigawatts. That is more than two large-scale nuclear power plants worth of power made up of a bunch of balcony solar! In the U.S. there is over a $14 billion investment opportunity to put in these systems. My lab completed a study that showed these systems are just as safe and technically viable as in Europe (and even comes with free software to make permitting easy for local utilities).
The only problem is balcony solar is not specifically legal throughout the U.S. as it is in many European countries. Doing it on your balcony may involve a minor skirmish with the local homeowners association, but it can generally be done. While specific legislation is not in place, many Americans have installed balcony solar systems in states like California (thanks to the Solar Rights Act), which you might expect. It is just not the coastal states. People in states like Texas (Texas Solar Rights Act), and Florida also have installed a lot of balcony solar.
However, the real solar leader in the U.S. is conservative Utah, which was the first state to allow balcony solar by passing republican House Bill 340, a law that exempts plug-in systems from utility approval, fees, and complex interconnection agreements. This makes technical sense and is really good for citizens wanting to cash in on solar savings. The Utah Bill is straight forward, easy to adapt to the other states and makes balcony solar easy to do. So look out – balcony solar might be coming from Europe to your home state soon!
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