Using a Battery Backup System for continuous Solar Power
Recent natural disasters have demonstrated how much we rely on electricity. With so-called “100 Year” storms, floods, earthquakes and bush fires happening with increasing regularity, it’s timely to talk about how you can reduce your reliance on the grid by using grid connected battery storage in conjunction with a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, otherwise known as a hybrid or battery backup system.
GRID UNRELIABLE
A little known fact about conventional grid-tied solar power is that as soon as the grid electricity is lost, a solar power system is useless. For safety reasons, it must by law disconnect as soon as the grid is lost, meaning thousands of dollars of solar panels are doing nothing while your home or office remains powerless.
We all know the grid is not always reliable, even a car accident can all cause an outage. During outages, business can incur thousands of dollars in lost profits as their operations come to a grinding halt, or perhaps put at risk the safety of medical supplies and that of employees and customers. Home owners are faced with the inconvenience of hours – sometimes days – of no heating, lighting, cooking and communication facilities.
BATTERY BACKUP ALLOWS CONTINUOUS SOLAR POWER
The incorporation of a battery bank allows solar panels to continue powering your world when the grid has failed. It also means that the batteries take over at night or when there is insufficient sun. The result is clean continuous solar power under any conditions, which will allow you to automatically feed back excess solar power to the grid during the day.
Compare this to the conventional grid-tied solar system where excess power is fed back into the grid earning you a credit on your power bill. In most cases the amount paid for electricity exported to the grid is well below the price you pay when you buy electricity. So you may create power and sell it to the electricity retailer, only to buy back in the evening at a higher rate.
Regardless of whether you have an existing solar system or require a new system, a battery backup system can easily be integrated to give you the opportunity to immediately take control of your energy usage.
Bear in mind that with a solar battery storage system your house can receive power from three sources – the solar PV array, the battery bank, and the electricity grid – and is therefore a more complex and costly setup. A solar battery storage system may not be suitable in all situations.
Sources:
Graphic Future Energy
Supplier myGrid Energy Centre Solutions
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