Balcony renewable energy will not survive. Officials against energy storage

If your electricity bill can be lower, why overpay? This simple philosophy has accompanied Poles in the energy transformation since 2018. But the more renewable energy installations in Polish homes, the more restrictions and unfavorable legal solutions. The Ministry of Development and Technology is preparing more projects.

The “Moj Prąd” program and profitable settlements with energy operators meant that photovoltaic installations appeared literally all over the country in just four years. And with them there are problems.

Poland unprepared for renewable energy. A history of restrictions and discouragements

Polish energy networks were designed to transmit electricity in one direction – from large conventional power plants to consumers. The dynamic development of renewable energy sources, mainly photovoltaics, has led to overloads. In a short time, over 1.5 million micro-installations were connected in Poland. On sunny days, the low-voltage grid began to accept more energy than it could handle. This was enough of an argument for the need to introduce new, rigorous rules.

Instead of a system of discounts beneficial to Poles (net-metering), net-billing has appeared since April 2022. Since then, prosumers sell surplus energy at the market price and buy it at retail prices, which has drastically reduced the profitability of the investment.

The need to save the system from blackouts is the reason why Distribution System Operators (DSOs) have been authorized to remotely monitor and limit the operation of RES inverters in the event of a threat to grid stability. Energy storage was supposed to be the solution – but it is no longer the case.

Energy storage is a threat in multi-family buildings

The Ministry of Development and Technology is working on changes to the regulation on the technical conditions that buildings and their location should meet. To put it simply, the new regulations (paragraph 312(4)(4)) contain: a proposal leading to a ban on the use of energy storage in blocks of flats. We are talking about an absolute ban on installing energy storage in residential premises of multi-family buildings and on balconies and loggias.

The reason is the threat of fires. It’s about risk withrelated to the storage of lithium-ion batteries inside buildings. – We have 1.7 million photovoltaic installations and we don’t hear about dangerous situations such as fires. We also have over 100,000 home energy storage facilities and we have not heard of any catching fire. I am not saying that there are no such cases, but they may be isolated situations. It is worth noting that the fire brigade does not keep any fire statistics on these devices, which also proves the small scale of the problem – Maciej Borowiak, president of the Association of the Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Industry (SBFiME) counters the idea of ​​​​Ministry of Energy and Technology officials in the media – Poland will soon be the only country in the EU with such restrictive regulations for energy storage and the only one that implements the directive on facilitating energy storage by banning them – says the president. SBFiME.

Unlike Germany, where sets of solar panels for balconies can be purchased at a supermarket and plugged into a regular socket, in Poland their installation often involves the need to report the installation to the Distribution System Operator (DSO) and obtain consent from the community or cooperative.

Meanwhile, an 800W balcony photovoltaic set can produce approximately 500 – 800 kWh of energy per year, which reduces electricity bills by approximately PLN 400 to PLN 800 per year.