Tenant Rights to Generate Solar Power on Rented Roofs

= "Incentivising Solar on Rented Roofs through Legislation offering subsidy to landlords for provision of solar energy or combined heat and power to tenants"

Example

Germany

By Brian Parkin:

"Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition is widening access to the solar power market for people who rent their homes in a move to boost green power’s expansion in an election year.

Lawmakers moved to pass legislation dubbed “Tenant Power” on Thursday in Berlin. The bill promises owners of tenant blocks a subsidy of as much as 3.8 cents/kWh (US$0.43/kWh) for generating solar power on rooftops or from basement combined heat and power units. As many as 3.8 million rental properties could benefit from the move, according to the government.

The bill seeks to balance rights between renters and homeowners, who “participate directly in expanding renewable energy in contrast to tenants,” according to the bill. The legislation seeks to open solar power to wider groups as the pace of German rooftop installations slows, falling for a third year and running below the government’s annual 2.5-gigawatt goal.

...

The legislation envisages that housing block owners will pass on subsidies earned by erecting solar systems to tenants in the form of cheaper electricity. The decentralized power supply isn’t liable for transmission fees, making both parties potential winners of home-generated power supply.

The law also limits aid to residential blocks that add solar systems to roofs, not to wider estates that may be linked by ownership but be unsuitable for solar power generation. Critics also point out that tenants must pay clean energy surcharges on the power they draw from rooftops." (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/07/german-tenants-win-right-to-generate-solar-power-on-rented-roofs.html)