“Thuringia’s tenants share the sun”

Germany’s parliament decided on allowing tenants to benefit from solar power panels installed on their buildings a few weeks ago and now renters seizing this opportunity say they were able to reduce their power bill with it, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. “Tenant power” is especially profitable for people in eastern Germany, where grid fees are higher and solar panels allow people to decouple themselves from the grid to a certain extent, the article says. At a model project in the Thuringian town of Sondershausen, tenants were able to generate about a quarter of their electricity with their own solar panels, bring their power bill down and also save tons of greenhouse gas emissions, dpa reports.

For background on Germany’s grid fee debate, see this CLEW factsheet.