German regional courts have upheld sales bans covering certain plug-in solar batteries that lack protection against electrical circuit overload, according to Berlin-based Indielux. The company says one of the bans is now legally binding, with violations punishable by fines of up to €250,000 ($286,920).
In June, the regional courts in Bochum and Osnabrück prohibited the sale of certain plug-in solar battery systems that, in the judges’ view, did not meet applicable VDE standards and therefore could not be marketed as “plug & play” systems or as products that can be installed “without an electrician.” The affected retailers appealed the decisions.
Indielux, which brought the cases, said the appeals had failed. According to the company, the Osnabrück court upheld its sales ban in full following an oral hearing, while the Bochum ruling was largely upheld and is legally binding.
The company said the courts found that suppliers must independently demonstrate the safety of products that do not comply with VDE standards. Indielux said only one manufacturer has so far demonstrated that its plug-in solar battery system provides circuit-overload protection in accordance with the VDE standard referenced in the rulings.
The issue concerns the effect of feeding electricity into a circuit through a standard socket. Indielux said this can increase the effective protection level of the circuit, potentially preventing a fuse from adequately protecting wiring against overheating. According to the company, a technical overload-protection measure is required when more than 960 W of PV module capacity is connected.
The device covered by the court proceedings did not have such protection, according to Indielux. The company also said the system’s feed-in power could be set to 1.5 times the limit specified by the relevant standard.
Indielux said the rulings could affect a significant number of systems already installed in German homes. The company said almost 250,000 plug-in solar systems with more than 960 W of PV capacity were registered in Germany’s Market Master Data Register during the previous 12 months. Including unregistered systems, Indielux estimates the potentially affected market at around EUR 500 million.
German market-surveillance authorities have also examined the issue, according to Indielux. The company said its own safety analysis found that plug-in solar batteries without overload protection could heat electrical installations to as much as 217 C when feeding 2,500 W. Indielux said temperatures above 200 C pose a fire risk.
The company also said continuous feed-in at the 800 W limit permitted under the applicable standard, equivalent to 3.5 A, could in unfavorable circumstances reduce the expected service life of an electrical installation from around 25 years to less than one year.
Indielux recommends that affected buyers consider their statutory warranty rights and immediately reduce their risk by lowering their battery’s feed-in power. The company said buyers could also seek remedial action from retailers under statutory warranty provisions, arguing that a product that violates Germany’s Product Safety Act and cannot legally be sold could constitute a defect under German sales law.
Reducing feed-in power alone, however, does not constitute the protection measure required by the standard, according to Indielux. One established solution is for a qualified electrician to install a dedicated Wieland feed-in socket marked with the maximum permitted feed-in current.
Indielux also markets its own feed-in socket, which the company says can provide protection for feed-in of up to 2,070 W, or 9 A. Its ready2plugin-Stromwächter system can also be retrofitted, although Indielux said this currently requires measurement equipment to be installed in the electrical distribution board. The company said many plug-in solar battery systems already contain a Shelly Pro 3EM meter and that it offers a retrofit kit for those systems.
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