Battery Storage For Residential

A major focus of research is to find new ways to store energy produced by solar PV systems. Until relatively recently, solar electricity had been a very much use it or lose it type of resource. This meant that most solar PV systems are only meeting electrical demands for a portion of the day and as a result, much of the electricity was lost; not used.

The Basics

Solar panels do not work at night, but with a battery, in effect they do. During the day, when solar panels are generating more power than your property is using, excess power is diverted to the battery for use later. When the sun goes down, or if you are using more energy than your panels are providing, the battery will kick in to give you power and prevent drawing from the grid.

Solar batteries allow you to store up power for when you really need it. Adding battery storage minimises your reliance on the grid and reduces the money you put in your energy supplier’s pocket.

Ideally you should install your battery at the same time as your solar panels. If you are retrofitting, you may also have to add the cost of an inverter to your existing solar panels. There are hybrid systems which combine an inverter with battery storage.

Not all solar batteries are designed to allow the use of solar electricity during a power cut, so if this is important to you, make sure you check beforehand. Of course, batteries with such functionality may tend to be more expensive.