Solar Balconies Take Europe by Storm

https://hackaday.com/2026/03/31/solar-balconies-take-europe-by-storm/

44•lxm•3h ago

Comments

SoftTalker•2h ago

> 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.

telotortium•1h ago

I think this is why they're supposed to be limited to 800 W, but is that enough to avoid serious danger to utility workers when a whole apartment building or neighborhood is full of these?

namibj•22m ago

Central Europe has more buried electrical systems and nothing is safe until it's actively grounded so hard it'll arc flash the idiot who broke you LOTO before you even feel a clear tingle.

The 800W is about grid management impact limitation to levels that do not warrant the utility imposing any "but we first have to upgrade the substation before we can get you your local transformer with the higher speed EV charging and McMansion winter full heat pump setup" delays before you are allowed to turn it on/grid-tie it.

adrianN•21m ago

They are limited to prevent fires. They sit behind the breakers so any power they feed in allows more current on the cables before the breakers trip.

InvisibleUp•1h ago

Yes. Any system that’s UL 3700 (or more generally IEEE 1547 / UL 1741) compliant mandates anti-islanding by shutting off the power within two seconds of grid loss.

couchand•1h ago

Fortunately they do, and in fact the article makes that clear. +1 for reading to the end of the paragraph that was quoted.

jacquesm•27m ago

You can't buy an inverter that is certified that doesn't do this. As well as a whole raft of other safety measures and grid quality measures besides.

See for instance:

https://www.netbeheernederland.nl/sites/default/files/2024-0...

Every region has their own set of rules which requires inverter manufacturers to have a bunch of different settings depending on where the inverter is installed.

testing22321•2h ago

I really hope these become legal in Canada.

Right now it seems Utah is the only jurisdiction in North America where they are

bamboozled•1h ago

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?

SoftTalker•1h ago

Solar panels were expensive and not very efficient then.

bamboozled•36m ago

Do you think more investment / subsidies weren't possible over the last few decades?

adrianN•1h ago

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.

effdee•50m ago

If port 502/TCP is open you can probably access it via Modbus protocol. Implementing a Modbus client is trivial.

My rebranded Fox ESS hardware has it enabled and there's even official documentation of the so-called "registers".

ChrisArchitect•55m ago

Iran war sparks renewables boom as Europeans rush to buy solar, heat pumps, EVs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47601310

bamboozled•36m ago

Drill baby drill...

mudil•22m ago

Is this supposed to be a revolutionary European invention?

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