Solar Balconies Are Booming in Germany and You Can Plug in and Install Them Yourself

A solar balcony from Ertex Solar Austria.

Solar panels are finding their way onto all sorts of surprising surfaces, and now Central Europeans are beginning to line their balcony rails with them; because why not?

To mark the 70th anniversary of the solar cell’s mainstream entry into society, data acquired by Euronews claims that 400,000 German households have already connected their verandas and balconies to solar panels.

New data shows at least 50,000 of the PV devices were added in the first quarter of 2024 alone.

Easy to install—such that many do it themselves, the technology makes every bit of sense as rooftop PV solar panels. In the Northern Hemisphere, during the winter months especially, the sun comes at such a shallow angle that panels on a balcony may even exceed the power generation of those mounted on a roof.

They won’t generate more power, because they’re plugged into smaller sockets, but they present less of a hazard than rooftop solar, and may not even require installation fees. They can also be installed where people may not have the requisite sunlight, the property access, or the structural strength to install rooftop panels.

Jan Osenberg, a policy advisor at the SolarPower Europe association, told Euronews that 200 megawatts is a rough estimate of how much electricity is generated by solar balconies, compared to 22 gigawatts from all of Germany’s rooftop solar panels.

The technology has been a boom in Germany’s strong solar culture. More power is generated by solar in Germany than any other country in Europe.

A solar balcony from Ertex Solar Austria.

“Rooftop solar really has this empowering momentum that people who start to have a solar system, they start to track their electricity consumption, they start to feel themselves as being someone who is a frontrunner in the energy transition, someone who supports the energy transition and is already a part of it,” says Osenberg.

Some German states offer subsidies for a solar balcony kit, which pays for itself in electricity savings after around 3-5 years of its 20-year lifespan. However, at 24 kilograms—over 50 pounds—installation needs to be taken deadly seriously, as a panel falling three or four stories onto someone might be lights out.

Europe has been getting progressively more inventive with the placement of its solar panels. GNN has reported on solar power installations. Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/solar-balconies-are-booming-in-germany-and-you-can-plug-in-and-install-them-yourself/

Read More........ → April 27, 2024

Merkel, Macron meet as Germany takes on high-stakes EU presidency

Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron

AFP/Berlin: Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on Monday, days before Germany takes on the rotating presidency of the European Union with the economy in the throes of the most severe storm since World War II.

Berlin's chairing of the 26-member bloc will be its last with Merkel in charge, and could be the one that defines the legacy of the leader dubbed the ‘eternal chancellor’.

With the future of the bloc's relationship with Britain to be determined, a crucial shift to a lower carbon world in the balance and crises from Libya to Syria all jostling for attention, there is no shortage of burning issues to tackle.

But the COVID0-19 pandemic and the economic devastation it has wrought have become a bull in the painstakingly arranged EU china shop.

‘This crisis that we're currently experiencing is different compared to any other we have experienced since the founding of Europe,’ Merkel, in power since 2005, told parliament in an address laying out priorities for the EU presidency.

‘Alone in Europe, it has claimed more than 100,000 lives. A few weeks of economic standstill was enough to endanger what we have built up over years.’

With all to play for, member states are anxiously looking to Europe's biggest economy to take charge.

In an interview published Saturday, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said it was ‘very fortunate that Germany is taking over the presidency at this time of a major crisis.’

Merkel's long experience and credibility ‘helps enormously,’ she told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

So high are the expectations that Germany's EU ambassador Michael Clauss said in jest they are making him ‘sleep badly, because I think the expectations are already a bit overstretched.’

‘We have to act as honest brokers, otherwise we won't have the support of the council.’

- German 'bulldozer' -

Besides its geopolitical weight and economic heft, Germany is taking on custodianship of the bloc with a strong hand as it has so far withstood the health emergency better than most other member states.

Its economy also entered the crisis well-endowed to fight the impact.

Crucially, compared to the debt crisis that threatened to sink the single currency zone in 2009-2010, Germany looks very different today -- it's out with Scrooge and in with Lady Bountiful.

Once an obstinate champion of budgetary rigour, Merkel's government has ditched its no-new-debt dogma to throw resources at the crisis.

At home, its programme to shore up the economy totals more than a trillion euros in spending, loans and guarantees.

Together with Macron, Merkel had sketched out the backbone of the 750 million-euro ($840-million) fund proposed by von der Leyen to bolster the bloc's economy.

The fund would offer grants -- with no repayment obligation -- to countries hardest hit by the pandemic, a major policy U-turn for Berlin.

With an eye on the devastating blow taken by the worst-hit countries like Spain or Italy, Merkel explained that it was ‘imperative that Germany not only thinks of itself but is prepared for an extraordinary act of solidarity’.

‘In such a crisis, everyone is expected to do what is necessary. And what is necessary in this case is rather extraordinary,’ she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The recovery fund is likely to be among the key points raised when Merkel and Macron hold talks at German government retreat Meseberg on Monday, with frugal nations such as Austria and the Netherlands sharp critics.

But observers believe that the EU's biggest paymaster Berlin will ram through a yes.

‘When the Germans are certain they are right, it's very bulldozer, there is no margin for discussion,’ a high-ranking EU official said.

- 'Swan song' -

An EU diplomat agreed, saying: ‘On the recovery fund, I expect Germany to dictate the whole process. Merkel is holding all the cards and (EU Council chief) Charles Michel will follow that.

‘She also wants to get Brexit out of the way and she will always go for the deal as she wants to keep the West together. Third leg will be restoring ties with US after the election there.’

Merkel, who has ruled out running for a fifth term next year, won't have much time.

Brexit talks will have to be done by the end of the year, while in November, focus will be on whether US President Donald Trump, whose relationship with Merkel has been frosty at best, manages to hold on to his job.

What is clear is that Merkel's fingerprints will be all over the EU's roadmap through the next six months.

‘This will be a very Merkel presidency, her swan song,’ said the EU diplomat, adding that she would be using it ‘to craft her legacy’.Merkel,  Source:https://www.gulf-times.com/

Read More........ → July 12, 2020

Some 4,000 volunteer to test coronavirus vaccine in German study

Some 4,000 volunteers have registered as subjects for a coronavirus vaccination study at the University Hospital in the south-western German city of Tuebingen.

‘It's a real luxury situation, unlike usual clinical trials,’ study director Peter Kremsner told dpa on Friday. ‘Normally we have trouble coming up with enough test subjects.’ A clinical study began at the university clinic in mid-June to test the tolerability of a vaccine developed by the Tuebingen biopharmaceutical company CureVac.

Since then, around 50 people have received the drug. According to Kremsner, no surprising side effects have yet occurred.

So far everything has been fine, Kremsner said, adding that the study had not revealed any sensational or concerning findings.

Not all of the people who volunteered will be able to take part.

A total of 168 subjects are to be vaccinated - in addition to Tuebingen, also in test centres in Hanover and Munich, as well as Ghent, Belgium.

The clinical trial is a so-called phase 1 trial. If it is successful, investigations with significantly more test subjects will follow.

CureVac is working on so-called mRNA vaccines. mRNA is a kind of messenger molecule that contains the building instructions for the production of proteins. For their vaccine, the Curevac researchers provided mRNA with the building instructions for a protein of the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2.

After vaccination, human cells form this protein, which the body recognizes as foreign. It forms antibodies and other immune cells against it.

Compared to other countries in Europe, Germany has not been as hard hit by the coronavirus. As of Saturday morning, the Robert Koch Institute - the country's disease authority - reported six more deaths from the day before, bringing the total to 9,060.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the country now has a total of 198,556 confirmed cases, after 378 new ones on Saturday. Source: https://www.gulf-times.com

Read More........ → July 11, 2020