Same observation. I was asking myself exactly the same question on Rhodes month ago. And I am really curios what is the answer.

@alatiera @karolherbst I'm not saying solar water heaters aren't good, I think there isn't really a conflict between the two. There is usually enough room for photovoltaic panels even when you have water heaters and I see quite a lot of energy to be covered here during summer: water pumps for pools, air conditioners... But yeah, it's an investment which requires a lot of upfront capital: €5-10k. That's probably the limiting factor.

@karolherbst The cost is also a big factor, it only costs 800-1k euros to install, installation included in the price.

@alatiera had a friends family doing that like 25 years ago in Germany and apparently it's even good enough for most winter days 🙃

@karolherbst Yea we have enough hot water to shower the whole year, you never need to actually turn on the boiler.

ain't there overheating issue with photovoltaics?

reason is of financial nature: cost of living increase comtinuously, rents are increasing heavily double-digit with rent vs income rate approaching >40% of income !!! In contrast mega solar and wind imstallations boom, so solar at home cannot compete.

@sotiry big solar power plants are definitely more cost efficient, but in Czechia home solar systems have two advantages: the government subsidized them up to 50% of their costs and consumers have to pay a distribution fee for every kWh they consume from the grid and the fee can be as high as 50% of the total price. So home solar systems can still be cheaper for people than consuming power from big solar plants, but using the grid. But if subsidies in Greece aren't big enough and the distribution fees are different, then the calculation can also be dramatically different.