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Solar panels in Dusseldorf
Photo: Robert Poorten / IMAGO
The simplified installation of the currently very popular solar systems for balconies and terraces threatens to be further delayed.
One of the most important hurdles has still not been cleared: connecting the panels to the home's power grid.
The current regulations do not specify whether an ordinary Schuko plug is sufficient for this, or whether the system requires a special so-called Wieland socket, which the electrician has to set up at great expense.
According to SPIEGEL information, this is now causing a clinch between the Federal Network Agency and the Association of German Electrical Engineers (VDE): The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, requests the VDE in a letter that when developing a new product standard for balcony power plants, the commercially available Schuko plug is "determined as an acceptable connection option", at least if appropriate safety precautions exist in the household.
In order to avoid uncertainties, a corresponding note from the VDE before the end of the lengthy standardization process is helpful.
But the VDE insists on first completing the new product standard.
"We cordially invite Mr. Müller to take part in the standardization process," explains VDE boss Ansgar Hinz.
However, he did not want to "conceal" that the federal government still had some homework to do.
For example, the legislature must regulate whether customers are allowed to reduce their electricity bills by turning their electricity meters backwards as soon as the balcony systems feed excess electricity into the grid.
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