Plug-in solar orientation 2026: direction, angle and shade
Upright on a south-facing railing, a balcony kit reaches 69 % of what the same panels deliver tilted 35° south; facing west it is 51 %, facing east 43 %. Tilting the panels matters more than the perfect direction.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
What direction and tilt do on a balcony
Output 900 Wp (German average)
485 kWh
| compared with 35° south | 51 % |
| used at home (2,500 kWh) | 337 kWh |
| Self-use share | 70 % |
Two angles decide the orientation (Ausrichtung) of a German balcony power plant: the compass direction and the tilt from horizontal. Panels reach their best value at about 35° facing south, 949 kWh a year for 900 Wp on the German average. On a balcony railing, though, they usually hang upright, and that costs more than direction: upright facing south they produce 656 kWh (69 %), at a 70° tilt already 830 kWh. Upright facing west gives 485 kWh, east 410 kWh and north only 174 kWh. East and west catch up on self-consumption, because morning and evening power is more likely to be used at home: facing east a household using 2,500 kWh consumes 70 % of output itself, facing south 64 %. Shade bites directly: 20 per cent shading lowers the upright south yield to 526 kWh. The engine computes all values from PVGIS data and metered load profiles.
Two angles decide the yield
The compass direction, or azimuth, says where the panel surface points. The tilt describes how steep it stands: 0° lies flat, 90° hangs upright. In Germany the optimum is about 35° facing south. This site's engine reads a factor for every combination of both angles from queries to PVGIS and uses it to compute annual yield. The grid below shows the result for 900 Wp on the German average, each relative to the best value of 949 kWh.
| Direction | 90° upright | 70° | 35° | 15° |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South | 656 kWh (69 %) | 830 kWh (87 %) | 949 kWh (100 %) | 900 kWh (95 %) |
| South-east | 571 kWh (60 %) | 729 kWh (77 %) | 866 kWh (91 %) | 857 kWh (90 %) |
| South-west | 635 kWh (67 %) | 791 kWh (83 %) | 912 kWh (96 %) | 883 kWh (93 %) |
| East | 410 kWh (43 %) | 546 kWh (58 %) | 722 kWh (76 %) | 782 kWh (82 %) |
| West | 485 kWh (51 %) | 621 kWh (65 %) | 775 kWh (82 %) | 813 kWh (86 %) |
| North | 174 kWh (18 %) | 258 kWh (27 %) | 509 kWh (54 %) | 689 kWh (73 %) |
Three rules follow from the grid. On a balcony, tilt weighs more than direction: upright facing south is below 35° facing west (775 kWh). The further panels point away from south, the flatter they should stand. And south-east and south-west differ from due south by only a few per cent.
Upright on the railing: the most common case
Most balcony kits hang on the outside of the railing, because that needs no drilling and takes no floor space. Upright panels lose mainly in summer, when the midday sun comes steeply from above. In winter they face the low sun almost perfectly, and snow slides off. A bracket that angles the bottom of the panels outwards brings 830 instead of 656 kWh at a 70° tilt. Whether that is allowed on your building is not a question of energy law but of the railing's load capacity, the house rules and, where relevant, your landlord. With large panel output, upright mounting has a side effect: the inverter has to clip less often, as the guide plug-in solar 800 watt shows.
East and west: less yield, more self-use
| upright facing | Output | used at home | self-use share |
|---|---|---|---|
| South | 656 kWh | 420 kWh | 64 % |
| East | 410 kWh | 288 kWh | 70 % |
| West | 485 kWh | 337 kWh | 70 % |
| North | 174 kWh | 161 kWh | 92 % |
An east balcony produces 38 % less upright than a south balcony, but the household uses a larger part of it, because the power arrives in the morning when the coffee machine and lights are on. This is computed with the HTW Berlin load profiles. The gap in savings is therefore smaller than the gap in yield. If you have room on two sides, split the panels between east and west and connect them to separate inverter inputs. The logic for whole roofs is under east-west solar roof.
Shade: the underrated factor
| Shading | Output | Saving per year |
|---|---|---|
| 0 % | 656 kWh | €152 |
| 10 % | 591 kWh | €143 |
| 20 % | 526 kWh | €134 |
| 30 % | 460 kWh | €123 |
Typical sources of shade on a balcony are the balcony on the floor above, partition walls to the neighbours, trees and buildings opposite. A tree to the south costs a lot in summer and little in winter once it drops its leaves; a building opposite, by contrast, mainly takes the low winter sun. A look at different times of day tells you most: where shade falls at midday, the system loses most. If you can mount panels in two places, put the more shaded one on its own inverter input.
How to find your balcony's orientation
You can work out the direction without tools. A smartphone compass app laid on the balcony parapet shows the way the balcony faces. Without a compass, note when the sun is straight ahead: around midday for a south balcony, mid-morning for east, late afternoon for west. Map services with aerial images help as well, since building fronts are easy to see there. If your balcony lies between two directions, say south-south-west, the yield falls between the rows of the grid; the mini calculator above covers the in-between values south-east and south-west.
On a railing the tilt is usually 90°. For stands the angle is on the data sheet, and a spirit-level app measures it. For a flat roof or terrace the grid gives a simple rule: the more wind and the less space, the flatter, because facing south there is only 5 % between 15° and 35°.
How Germany points its panels
The Market Master Data Register records the main orientation of every solar unit, rooftop and balcony alike. According to the public list of units, 45 % of all units face south and 21 % face east, west or east-west. On a balcony the choice is usually given; the levers are then tilt, shade and when the household needs power. Annual and monthly yield for your location is under plug-in solar yield, payback under is plug-in solar worth it?.