Despite a recent slowdown in the rooftop segment, it still provided close to 60% of Europe’s newly installed solar capacity in 2024, and the prominence of rooftop solar is unlikely to change in the foreseeable. The immovable truths of versatility, affordability, and energy security will help the segment weather headwinds. Now the task is ensuring the smoothest development possible – and truly maximising the potential of solar buildings.
SolarPower Europe has published ‘Flexible buildings, resilient grids’ to map the flexibility value of solar buildings, explore the real world case studies of flexible buildings in action, and recommend policy actions to take flexibility to the next level.
Flexible buildings, resilient grids
More than half of EU system flexibility. Supporting grid stability. Enhancing efficiency. Lowering costs.
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The EU Joint Research Centre conservatively estimates that EU solar rooftops could host 1.1 TW. Beyond capacity potential, and their traditional role as passive energy consumers, solar buildings offer boundless flexibility potential for the wider energy system. Today, solar buildings are the digital gateway to demand response; they support grid stability by integrating solar panels with battery storage, heat pumps, electric vehicles, and smart energy management systems. Smart solar buildings enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen grid reliability in mature solar markets.
Our modelling shows, that by 2030, smart solar building solutions could meet more than half of EU daily energy system flexibility needs, and a third of its annual flexibility needs. That means a more cost-effective system, resilient to shocks and strengthening Europe’s energy security.
The good news is that technical solutions and business models already exist today. A quickly growing smart buildings segment is explored in this report, by LCP Delta in chapter 1. Our flexibility case studies from companies actively offering such commercial products (in chapter 4) further set out the tangible benefits to both citizens and grids, from energy-sharing communities to participation in balancing markets.
However, unlocking this potential requires concerted, co-ordinated, effort in Brussels and EU capitals. See below a summary of policy recommendations.
Set price signals
End-users need access to time-varying prices to adjust their consumption and generation based on system demands. Time-of-use grid tariffs and local flexibility markets are the preferred tools to optimise local grid usage. Regulators/grid operators should implement both. They should give users the right to Flexible Connection Agreements if they face congestion, granting full-capacity access once possible. Additionally, suppliers should offer dynamic electricity pricing, and rooftop PV injections should reflect wholesale market prices.
Network tariff design, while supporting the full recovery of network costs, must incentivise efficient grid use. Such tariffs should encourage behaviour that reduces strains on the grid, such as shifting consumption to off-peak hours or investing in flexibility solutions like batteries.
Complement smart meters with submeters
The EU and its Member States must accelerate the smart meter rollout, which is still hampering demand response in many European markets. Furthermore, the Network Code for Demand Response should clarify that consumers have the right to use data from submeters, called “dedicated measurement device” (DMD) in EU-terms, where a smart meter is missing or to complement smart meter data to provide demand response or flexibility services. Charging and discharging devices, such as batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps, and inverters, should be classified as DMDs.
Tailor technology support schemes
The EU should specify in its State Aid Guidelines that Member States’ support for smart energy devices, such as inverters, heat pumps, EV chargers, and batteries, should aim to make buildings capable of demand response. This includes funding for automation and control systems, home energy management systems, electrical panels, wiring, and energy sensing. Member States can also encourage flexibility by subsidising bundles of equipment, including on-site generation like rooftop PV, storage, EV charging infrastructure, and heat pumps. Support should only be provided for flexibility-ready electrification solutions.
Harmonise data communication
The EU should harmonise communication protocols for demand response to ensure demand response evolves into a valuable user experience for consumers, enabling them to switch easily and ensure this interoperability comes at the lowest possible cost for demand response actors in Europe, fostering scale-up across countries. Such communication protocols define the rules and formats for exchanging data between systems (e.g., syntax, structure, and procedures), such as actors in the electricity market and smart energy devices like inverters.
Allow building flexibility to access balancing markets
Balancing services should always be procured through transparent and non-discriminatory market processes rather than being mandated, in line with Article 6 of the 2019 Electricity Regulation and the Electricity Balancing Guideline (EBGL). While progress has been made in replacing opaque bilateral contracts between system operators and generators with competitive, market-based flexibility procurement, access remains limited – especially for industrial, commercial, and residential buildings at lower voltage levels. Market accessibility also varies significantly across EU member states, restricting both grid stability and the profitability of flexible assets, particularlyaggregated DERs.
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