this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
32 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

40861 readers
430 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
remington@beehaw.org
alyaza@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org
gyrfalcon@beehaw.org
rs5th@beehaw.org
coldredlight@beehaw.org
SemioticStandard@beehaw.org
32
Balcony Solar is coming to the USA, sort of (www.volts.wtf)
submitted 2 days ago by Dippy@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Utah passed a law allowing balcony solar, which is already extremely popular in Germany. Over 30 states are working on bills to do the same, and once there are 5 states, the market is expected to entice competition. The technology of plug in solar has already proven to be perfectly safe at wattages as low as 800 watts per household, and the 1200 watt limit in Utah appears to be just as safe and diminimus.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Dippy@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

1200 watts isn't everything, but its definitely something, and when there are 7.4 million condominiums and 120 million renters in the USA. If a tenth of them get 1200 watts, that's 1.5 gigawatts in the usa

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean, that’ll offset lights and idle appliances, at least.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Nah, 1200w is much more than that.

If you live in LA that's like 2MWh/year.

[–] Dippy@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago

Payback period varies, but in Germany, most buyers are seeing a 4-5 year period