August 9, 2022, 4:01 am | Read time: 4 minutes

Many homeowners already have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, but most multi-family buildings with multiple owners remain without them. Tax and bureaucratic hurdles are often cited as reasons. Here, condo owners can learn what they need to do to install solar panels on their roofs.

Solar Panels as a Condo Owner–How to Proceed?

There are indeed ways for condo owner associations (COA) to benefit from self-generated solar power with manageable effort. The Energy Agency Regio Freiburg has summarized several methods in a guide on how condo owners can use electricity from solar panels. “It presents various operational concepts–from tenant electricity to general power supply, individual systems, and full feed-in of generated electricity,” says Johannes Jung from the Energy Agency.

“The different operational concepts have various legal and tax implications,” says attorney Michael Nack from the Consumer Protection Association Living in Ownership (WiE). Generally, installing a PV system on the community roof is a structural change that a COA can decide with a simple majority.

Only those COA members who vote for the installation must bear the costs later. Unless the measure pays off or a double qualified majority (more than two-thirds of the votes and more than half of the ownership shares) is achieved during the decision-making. Then all owners must share the costs, usually divided according to ownership shares.

Also interesting: Is a solar panel on the balcony worth it for generating your own electricity?

Owners’ Meeting Must Decide on Installation

But which operational concept is even feasible? Particularly obvious: The COA jointly installs a photovoltaic system on the roof. It must then be clarified whether the system will only generate general electricity, such as for elevators and stairwell lighting, or if the electricity will also be used in the apartments.

“Planning and preparing a community system is quite time-consuming, as persuasion must be done within the community to achieve the necessary majorities,” says Nack. The binding decision can only be made by the owners’ meeting, which usually takes place only once a year.

Also interesting: Dispute over solar panel reflection ends up in court

More on the topic

0

Exemption from Income Tax Bureaucratic Hurdles for Solar Installations to Be Reduced

0

Generate Your Own Electricity Is a Solar Panel on My Balcony Worth It?

Tenant Electricity Model Brings Tax Hurdles

And there is a second hurdle. If the COA produces and sells electricity, it is legally equated with a power supply company and also treated as such for tax purposes. This would be the case with the so-called tenant electricity model, where residents obtain electricity for their apartments from the COA. This issue unsettles many COAs.

If COAs want to bypass this bureaucratic hurdle, they can opt for an operational model where neither owners nor tenants obtain the electricity, but the community itself does.

In the general electricity operational model, the COA as a community produces solar power and consumes it in communal property like elevators, stairwell lighting, or common rooms. Thus, it does not sell its electricity and is not considered a company. This makes it significantly easier in most cases.

Individual Systems Can Also Be an Option

The simplest concept for operating a PV system is full feed-in. Here, all the electricity generated by the PV system is fed into the public grid. “Although the building’s own PV electricity consumption is eliminated, the electricity brings in money for the COA,” says Johannes Jung. However, the condo owner association then also acts as a company.

If no majority is found to install and operate the PV system as a community system of the COA, the option of individual systems remains. “In this case, the COA leases areas on the community roof to individual members,” says Michael Nack.

Individual condo owners become lessees, install their personal PV systems, and use the electricity in their apartments. “The COA acts only as a lessor here. A resolution by the owners’ meeting on leasing the roof area is required.”

Also interesting: Bureaucratic hurdles for solar panels are to be reduced

with material from dpa