Germany

This new wave of solar producers aren’t just getting cheap electricity, they’re also participating in the energy transition. More than 400,000 plug-in solar systems have been installed in Germany, most of them taking up a seamless spot on people’s balconies. New data shows at least 50,000 of the PV devices were added in the first quarter of 2024 alone. A boom born from Germany’s “very strong solar culture”, in the words of one expert. Solar balconies are a piece of the wider energy transition across Europe, explains Jan Osenberg, a policy advisor at the SolarPower Europe association. “We see them as a subset of rooftop solar, but also as something different,” he tells Euronews Green. “We basically see it as a trend to use all possible artificial infrastructure for solar generation.” Train tracks, motorways, carparks, car roofs, cemeteries and building facades… the list...