What happens if you’d love to have solar panels but don’t have a roof to put it on?
It’s not uncommon. You might be in rented accomodation or in an apartment, and don’t have access to a roof of your own. Perhaps you’ve got a roof but it faces the wrong way, is the wrong shape or isn’t strong enough to take the weight. Sometimes it’s planning rules, with solar frowned upon in heritage areas.
Just as likely, maybe what stands between you and solar power is nothing to do with a roof, and is that most boring and basic of obstacles: the budget. Solar panels aren’t cheap, despite the dramatic fall in global prices. You still have to pay someone to scaffold your house and install them, and it’s expensive.
The good news is that there are a range of ways to get started with solar power, without the space and the money for a personal rooftop array. Here are some of them, large and small.
Buy into a coop – one easy route into solar is to buy shares in a community energy scheme or coop. The Big Solar Coop is running a community share offer right now, for example. You can buy in from £100, and invest in solar on big commercial and community roofs instead of your own. I have a couple of investments in community energy groups myself, and am involved in bringing community energy to Luton in the near future.
Own or rent a panel elsewhere – if you can’t put them on your roof, how about owning a panel or two on a solar farm? A company in Lithuania called Saulės Bendruomenė were the first in the world to develop this model, in part because it was so hard to get planning permission to put solar on a house. Customers can buy or rent panels on one of their solar farms, benefitting directly from the clean energy generated. For those of us in the UK, Ripple Energy are doing something similar and you can own one of the 70,000 panels at their new solar farm.
Get a solar balcony – apartments might not have a roof, but they often have a balcony. Can you put solar on those? Sure. They’re rare in the UK, but solar balconies are increasingly popular in Germany. Over half a million of them have been fitted since the energy price rises caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine. It’s easy to do, because panels just hook over the railings, and you can buy a kit to do it yourself. Since it can bring solar power to people living in energy poverty, solar balconies are an environmental justice project that’s due a moment.
Use the window – no balcony? Try a windowsill instead. Here’s how Kris De Decker took his home office off-grid by installing solar on a windowsill. I’m not listing it separately because it isn’t ready yet, but you might be able to use the window itself at some point. It’s niche right now, but energy generating solar glass exists and is going to become more common as it gets cheaper.
Car port – I was at a school recently that wants solar, but their roof isn’t strong enough. I suggested they put a solar canopy over their staff car park instead. Solar canopies and carports come in all shapes and sizes, with companies specialising in the domestic or commercial market, often linked to car charging. To be honest, I don’t know why everyone isn’t putting solar canopies over their car parking spaces.
Put solar in the garden – not one for those in apartments, but there are plenty of ways to put solar in the garden. You can fit in on a shed, get a solar greenhouse, or add a solar awning or canopy out the back. If you’ve got a south facing garden, check out these solar fence panels.
Solar flooring – A decade ago there was a brief and slightly bizarre buzz around solar roads, with an American couple going viral with a project to embed solar panels in roads. That’s not practical for obvious reasons, but a company in Hungary spotted the missed opportunity: put solar on the ground but maybe don’t drive heavy traffic over it? Platio can sell you solar paving slabs for a patio or a driveway.
Get them at work/school/church – thinking beyond our own homes, we could all benefit from solar power that serves the community facilities that we use. So if you can’t install it on your own house, put some volunteering time into getting it on your school or place of worship. Convince your workplace to invest, and the chances are it will be a bigger array and a bigger carbon saving than you would have acheived at home.
Buy it for someone else – If you just believe in the solar revolution but can’t get involved yourself, you could help somebody else to benefit. Apparently Prince used to anonymously pay for solar panels for community groups in cities he toured through, and nobody knew about it until his death. At smaller scale, anyone can support microloans for solar through platforms like Kiva. And it’s not just altruists who might want to take this approach. My little investments in Energise Africa have brought solar to 17 businesses across 9 countries, at a small profit.
Start small – finally, if you’re really stuck for space or only have pocket money to spend, there are still ways to get a piece of the solar action. Get a solar phone charger, lighting or a radio. A word to the wise, however: there are all kinds of gadgets with solar panels in them these days and most of them are junk. Buy something that will last or any carbon saving from the solar will be wasted when the product hits landfill prematurely. House of Marley, who specialise in audio equipment made with sustainable materials, have a bluetooth speaker with in-built solar panel. I’ve used a WakaWaka solar light every night for ten years, lighting the way to the bathroom for the kids.
That’s ten. What have I missed?
The Earthbound Report 