Utah seems to be doing some cool things lately (try are featured in this article). They were at IIW this year talking about their new digital identity setup, too.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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I imagine it's because they're bolted down quite well
Nah definitely the ATC shortage
I just took portable ones and ziptied them to my balcony connected to a solar generator. Works to feed all my electronics and server equipment. It only connects to the grid if its depleted, never feeds power back in.
So you can still do this in the states, so long as you're not feeding into the grid.
Honestly I'm surprised a republican is pushing for solar energy.
Also, I'm not sure how much those in the article cost, but the kind you bolt down to a roof can easily cost you into the thousands, so it takes a while for them to pay for themselves, which isn't something everybody's going to be okay with.
The article mentions around 800W of solar being typical, so around $250-350 for the panels plus some mounting hardware and a micro inverter. Maybe $1000 total?
If your energy rates are high it could pay for itself in a few years.
Tl;dr: Because we haven't created a safety standard for it.
The lack of an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) standard is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the adoption of balcony solar. The company certifies the safety of thousands of household electrical products; according to Iowa State University, “every light bulb, lamp, or outlet purchased in the US usually has a UL symbol and says UL Listed.” This assures customers that the product follows nationally recognized guidelines and can be used without the risk of a fire or shock.
Safety standards? Sounds like anti-profit standards! Guess who DOGE is cutting next!
without reading the article I will guess... HOA regulations. How'd I do?
Not so good - issue is that your "code" for electrical installations doesn't include balcony solar and that your institutions are not able to include it because of reasons that do not make sense to anyone outside the USA
Let me guess? Electric monopoly?
No, it's electrical code. Standard outlets can't be used to supply power because it means you have a plug that has exposed wires commonly called suicide wires. While these balconey top solar likely use grid following so it has to detect a grid voltage, the electrical code doesn't consider it AFAIK. This rule is for safety and because it would only power half your house because there's only one leg per 110 outlet.
Or the fact that most people with balconies live in rented apartments and apartment managers aren't going to pay to subsidize an electric bill that tenants are entirely responsible for paying.
Yep. My apartment has restrictions in the lease that would prevent me from clamping solar panels as pictured.
"I don't want no woke commie energy"
HOAs and Condo rules and shit.
I wonder if you add an antenna and a small radio tower if OTARD would keep you protected? Gotta get power to it, so solar would make sense... hell, even a tv antenna with a booster would need power.
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Affording a balcony might be step one though.
I wanted an apartment with a balcony but they're all $500+ more a month in rent then I'm already paying.
This isn't for filthy renters
Having lived in a rental for many many years the inability to make small mods is SO annoying.
But this does beg the question, who OWNS a balcony. 99% of the home owners I know have single family houses. Granted I live in the south so owning an apartment is not the norm but I assume some people own an apartment in places like New York? But I’d assume people do?
I tried to look it up and from what I could find only about 15-17% of housing units in the US are apartments, and of those only about 15% own. So maybe 2% even have the opportunity. And this is assuming THOSE units have balconies, which I’m assuming only a small percentage of that 2% do. I’d think this is a major factor to balcony solar not taking off.
Owned apartments are just referred to as condos and presumably the condo owner owns the balcony while the "HOA/COA" owns the building.
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Oh, to be in Europe right now.
Visa marriages! I think here in Sweden at least it's not super difficult to get permanent residency via cohabitation, and cohabitation doesn't even require any particular paperwork. Granted, it's been a while since I looked into it, and with a government that's all chummy with the alt-right our immigration rules have gotten tighter, so things might've changed.
I'm hoping with the massive anti-US sentiment going right now, that the next government won't be right wing.
It's gotten significantly worse in basically every regard here in Sweden with regards to immigration, unfortunately.
Yay for Neo-Nazis in government. :(
Micro solar is doable for anyone with yard space though. Forget the grid and buy some battery storage, put all the electronics into a small shed (like a garbage can box or something, an enclosure to keep out rain). Put up panels anywhere you want. Run the inverter output into your house.
Got a friend with a cabin, and instead of a whole grid they found it simpler to plug their secondhand panels into a battery pack about the size of a car battery that has 110v, 12v, and USB outlets. They charge on the panels at home and it lasts the weekend at the cabin.
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I've never heard of balcony solar panels, much less ones you plug right into an outlet? Asked my German roomie and he's got no clue either.
How does plugging a power source into an outlet work? I'm no electrician, so that sounds bananas to me.
It detects a voltage connected to the plug and starts feeding with slightly higher voltage, done.
These are really common in Germany, even being sold as sets at supermarkets occasionally.
As long as you have one of the old Ferraris style meters, it just runs backwards, these usually pay for themselves in about three years on a sunny balcony that way.
starts feeding with slightly higher voltage Thats incorrect, the feeding into the grid works with a slightly ahead phase of the sinus with the same voltage.
Huh, the wiring just supports power spontaneously coming from an exit point rather than an entry? Is that commonplace?
Either way, that's fascinating! Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me!
Huh, the wiring just supports power spontaneously coming from an exit point rather than an entry? Is that commonplace?
Why wouldn't it? Electrical wiring isn't a one way road, electricity (this is an extreme oversimplification, especially when it comes to AC) will always flow from points of high voltage to points of lower voltage. That's how solar inverters feed into the grid. Raise their voltage a tad bit higher than the grid and match the frequency and phase of the grid until the outflow matches their maximum available power.
Is that commonplace?
That is a hard question, because this isn't a feature, it's how things are. Only thing one needs to take care of is that the solar inverter doesn't deliver so much power that the circuit can consume beyond the circuit breakers capacity, otherwise the breaker would be rendered useless. That's why these small plug inverters are limited to 800W in Germany, that puts the entire possible load on a 16A circuit into the general upper limit that is still within the safety margin fro 16A circuits.
EDIT: Now before someone gets the bright idea to connect their diesel generator to the grid this way: Don't. It will not be in sync or phase and that will make something spectacular happen, but it will not supply the grid. Either have an expensive generator that is able to sync to the grid or have a grid disconnect and switchover in front of your generator plugin socket.
EDITEDIT: Also please never connect an island capable solar inverter to a plug. The ones described above are safe that way, because they wait for grid voltage to be available before they do anything, so there will never be high voltage on the open plug. An island capable solar inverter does by definition not do that. There will be high voltage on the plug and it will kill you and it will hurt like a fucker the entire time you're dying.
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