Einhorn pioneers new market for solar power

BERLIN-BASED condom producer Einhorn has promoted its mission to protect the environment with products like its vegan, fair-trade rubbers. Now, it’s taking that ambition out of the bedroom and onto the balcony.

In a fundraising video for the company’s solar panels — modules roughly the size of a beach blanket that can be draped like a towel over a railing — bare-chested co-founder Waldemar Zeiler touts the devices and declares his goal to sell enough to replace a coalfired power plant.

But with a planned retail price of €550 ($588) each, that could be a challenge.

Thanks to cheap Chinese panels flooding the European market after the US stopped imports, the cost of individual solar modules has plunged, to an average of €300. In Germany, affordable balcony panels are now a trend. More than 360,000 have been registered since 2023, according to the national energy regulator, with Berlin as a hot spot.

That’s good news for Europe’s biggest economy, which is still struggling to replace the natural gas supply that was cut off after Russia invaded Ukraine. Germany added 14 gigawatts of solar capacity last year, more than any other country in the region.

Veranda installations represent just 150 megawatts, or one percent of added capacity, but they also signal an important shift. Solar, once the domain of anyone with a rooftop or wideopen fields, is now available to far more urban consumers.

“Solar for the first time affects city dwellers and not only the countryside,” according to Christoph Kost, head of energy systems at Fraunhofer ISE, an industry research group in Freiburg, Germany. “The trend is particularly strong in Germany as the country still has high power prices.”

It was less energy prices than climate consciousness and curiosity that made Stefan Martin, a 53-year-old father and homeowner in Berlin, an early adopter. Almost 100 owners live in his multistory apartment building, and it would have been “endlessly complicated” to convince all of them to install rooftop solar.

That’s one of the reasons why rooftop installations have been dragging in Germany, which needs to nearly triple its solar output to reach its 2030 climate goals. To speed up the process, parliament passed a package last week that also targets balcony solar: such modules can now reach up to 800 watts and be registered more easily. It’s also getting harder for landlords to object to the installations.

After seeing a neighbor put up a balcony panel, Mr. Martin also installed three modules totaling 500 watts from PluginEnergy GmbH, a German startup. “I had to negotiate with my wife, as we had to remove some flower pots,” Mr. Martin said. “We hid the cables inside bamboo, and now it looks quite decent.”

Mr. Martin ordered his solar module in April 2023 for €820, meaning he missed the fall in unit prices. Still, he calculates that the plant covers about 10% of his power consumption, which includes his fridge, standby devices and the two computers he and his wife use to work remotely. “We’ve saved about €115 in the first year on our electricity bill,” Mr. Martin says, “which means the panels will have amortized in seven to eight years.”