Building energy systems involves more than just installing solar panels.
Solar panels on the roof. The roof is already there, you don’t need extra space, and you generate energy locally. It sounds like the ideal solution. Yet they are not the be-all and end-all of the energy transition. The challenge is much bigger than simply installing solar panels. It’s not about panels. It’s about how the entire energy systems works.
How the energy system works
The energy transition is not just about where you install solar panels. If that were the case, it would simply be a matter of installing as many solar panels as possible. It is about how the entire energy system works.
Every kilowatt-hour you generate must go somewhere. There are three options:
Use it immediately
Store it temporarily
Feed it into the electricity grid
With the last option, we often come up against limitations.
Grid congestion
Many large roofs are found on industrial sites. And it is precisely there that the electricity grid is often already at full capacity: grid congestion. In many cases, surplus energy generated via rooftop solar panels cannot be fed back into the grid. This means you are producing energy that has nowhere to go.
Fortunately, in areas with few businesses and homes, we can take a different approach. There, we design the energy system from the ground up, including the connection. We determine where and how to connect to the high-voltage grid, tailoring the generation to this connection.
In some cases, we even build our own infrastructure. This enables us to generate capacity where there was none before. As a result, the energy can simply be fed into the grid and used.
Timing matters
Rooftop solar produces most of its energy in the middle of the day. Across thousands of roofs, at the same time. That creates a sharp peak, exactly when the grid is already under pressure.
With solar parks, we’re in control. We can actively manage the generated energy and combine it with storage. This is often more difficult on rooftops due to limited space and multiple owners. With solar parks, we can control when we deploy energy, for example by connecting directly to large energy consumers. It is then not isolated generation, but a controlled energy system.
Scale, speed and implementation
Solar panels on a roof require a tailored approach. Not every roof is suitable. Structures don’t always support the weight. Fire safety requirements and insurance issues make rooftop solar installations more challenging than ground-mounted solar.
In addition, you often have to deal with different owners and users, which affects the lead time.
The energy transition demands speed and scale. A solar park delivers large volumes of renewable energy in one go. To match that with rooftops, you need thousands of locations, each with its own technical and organisational challenges. That takes time. Time that simply isn’t available.
Roof-mounted solar and ground-mounted solar
This does not mean that roof-mounted solar plays no role. On the contrary. It is an important part of the energy transition and contributes locally to sustainable generation. So it’s not an either-or situation. It’s both. Roof-mounted solar also contributes to the energy transition. However, with roof-mounted solar alone, we will not meet the 2030 climate targets.
Building Energy Systems
At Novar, we don’t just consider isolated solutions; we look at the whole picture. We design energy systems where generation, storage and consumption work together. A solar park is not the end goal, but a building block. Combining these elements creates flexibility. It is precisely this flexibility that makes an energy system future-proof.
So the question is not whether we should choose rooftops or solar parks. The question is how we make the system work as a whole.
This is what green energy systems are all about. Not just generating energy, but designing the system that makes it work.
