Our test of the Lidl Parkside solar panel / Image: Energy Revolution.
The sign of hard discount has been selling a solar kit at an unbeatable price since May 17, in its German stores. We went to buy it on the other side of the Rhine, in order to know if it can be used in France and to know its real performance. A first test over 48 hours quite impressive for such a cheap product.
Self-consumption solar kits to plug in yourself, there are dozens marketed in France, but none are really cheap. Most kits are priced from €600. With us, they are not all the rage, tariff shield obliges. The regulated electricity tariff makes solar panels much less profitable than in Germany, where electricity is expensive and very carbon-intensive. Thus, across the Rhine, classic photovoltaic installations such as plug & play are snapping up like hotcakes.
We also picked up the latest Lidl solar kit from the Goldscheuer store, 10 km from Strasbourg, on the day of the launch, just 30 minutes after opening. The brand has taken advantage of the fashion for “balkonkraftwerk” (solar central balconies, literally) which has taken hold of Germany since the start of the energy crisis. The idea is simple: produce solar electricity from your balcony by all means (even with a badly positioned and not very powerful panel…) and thus avoid burning Russian gas.
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A solar panel Parkside of 150 Wp
Under its “Parkside” brand dedicated to DIY equipment, Lidl Germany has therefore released its own solar kit, at an apparently attractive price of €199. In the box, we obviously find a photovoltaic panel with a power of 150 Wp, 107 cm long and 77.5 cm wide, a 300 W network micro-inverter and everything necessary to hang the panel on the balcony and plug it into an outlet. This is a specific “RST” socket that meets German electrical requirements.
Unknown to the general public in France, it can be easily removed to be replaced by a French plug. This is what our colleague Sébastien, electronics engineer and technical sales manager for Mister EV (subsidiary of the Brakson group, owner of Révolution-Énergétique) did to connect the Lidl kit to his house in Alsace. He tested it for 2 sunny days to get a first glimpse of its performance. Are the 100 kWh of annual production promised by Lidl realistic?
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The actual production of the Lidl solar kit
Without a balcony, on the first day Sébastien installed the panel vertically on a fence in order to simulate a positioning in keeping with his vocation. On the second day, he tilted it to about 60°, to increase production. The electronics engineer thus produced 400 Wh on the first day, which is entirely in line with Lidl’s cautious promise, but also with the estimate provided by the free AutoCalSol tool.
Much better, on the second day, the Lidl panel produced 600 Wh for a maximum power raised to 140 W (out of the 150 Wp announced). The simple fact of tilting the panel thus makes it possible to gain 30 to 50% of production over the year. Considerable. However, Lidl has not provided any tilting system in its kit, not even a small arm to be fixed on the railing of its balcony. It will therefore be necessary to tinker a little to optimize the production of its panel.
| South-facing vertical panel – 100 kWh/year | ||
| In France (€0.21/kWh) | In Germany (€0.40/kWh) | |
| Savings | 21 €/year | 40 €/year |
| Depreciation period | 9 years and 6 months | 5 years |
| Panel tilted at 30° due south – 150 kWh/year | ||
| In France (€0.21/kWh) | In Germany (€0.40/kWh) | |
| Savings | €31.5/year | 60 €/year |
| Depreciation period | 6 years and 4 months | 3 years and 4 months |
A solar kit, what for?
If the production is modest (which is normal for a 150 Wp panel), it has the advantage of being self-consumed more easily. Because the interest of such a kit is to consume the entire production, the injection on the network not being remunerated in this situation. However, the sun shines at its strongest when you are not at home. With 150 small watts at best, the Lidl kit guarantees to cover the “basic” consumption of a home: internet box, refrigerator, VMC, appliances on standby, etc.
In the future, it will be possible to adapt the power of the kit according to your needs. Indeed, Lidl announces that it can be extended up to 600 Wp via a total of 4 panels and 2 micro-inverters linked together. We do not know, however, when these “extensions” will be marketed in Germany. Similarly, we do not know if the French subsidiary of the brand of hard discount plans to sell its solar kit in France. Barring an explosion in electricity prices, this is a priori unlikely.
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An application to monitor the production of the solar kit
To ensure optimal self-consumption, the production and statistics of the Lidl solar kit can be checked remotely using the WiFi micro-inverter linked to the “Lidl Home” application. An excellent point, where other much more expensive kits only offer this functionality as an option, or even not at all for some.
In concrete terms, the “Lidl Home” application displays the instantaneous production of the panel, the power restored by the micro-inverter, the total, daily and annual production, the savings made (in euros), the daily sunshine duration, the temperature (external and that of the micro-inverter), the DC input and AC output voltages and currents, as well as the network frequency (Hz). It also offers to set alerts on certain parameters.
According to our first test, the Lidl solar kit seems to enjoy an attractive quality/price ratio. Although it is impossible for us to assess its long-term robustness, it seems to be in good shape. The advertised performances are realistic. It is an inexpensive product that allows anyone to produce small amounts of photovoltaic electricity, even when you don’t have a large roof or a large piece of land. Anyone with even a small balcony or a small garden (or even a window with railing) can thus produce a little energy without breaking the bank.
Lidl solar kit: the + and –
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