Four ways rooftop solar and household batteries can help the grid.

Renewable technologies are now playing an essential role in balancing the grid as more coal-fired power stations close down and natural gas supplies remain constrained. The main way rooftop solar panels help to balance the grid is by using battery storage systems. ​This allows excess solar energy produced during the day to be stored, then used at night when the sun isn’t shining.

By doing this, households are contributing towards a cleaner environment and playing an active role in maintaining the stability of our electricity network. Solar powers system are not the only way to store energy, and there is another method that uses household batteries. The best example of this technology in action is through Tesla’s Powerwall system.

Provide backup power in emergencies

It will not be long before our grid becomes 100% reliant on renewable energy.​ With this in mind, it makes sense that households with solar panels can provide backup power for their neighbours during emergencies. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it also provides an opportunity for people to make some extra pocket money by selling their electricity back into the grid.

Providing backup power during an emergency is not the only way that batteries can help the grid. If they are installed to work in conjunction with solar power, your house will be able to use more of its electricity and less from the grid when you are at home. This benefit is even more significant if you don’t have much storage capacity on your roof for solar power.

By teaching your horse how to store its solar energy, you are helping the grid decrease its carbon footprint. Your house is no longer drawing on the grid during the day when electricity demand is at its highest, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the process. When everyone does this, it will help keep our air cleaner.

How does rooftop solar work with household batteries to help the grid?

While there are no immediate plans for this to happen, if everyone started using batteries at home, we would all save a lot of money on our electricity bills. As more and more customers begin storing excess energy from their solar panels onto household batteries, the price of electricity will drop considerably due to less strain being placed on power plants during peak periods.

At the moment, only about 1 in 50 houses has rooftop solar. With batteries, that number will increase significantly over the next few years. This provides an opportunity to renegotiate electricity tariffs with your current energy retailer or switch to a new supplier that can offer lower rates for people using battery storage technology.

For solar customers, this change could happen reasonably quickly due to fewer power plants being needed during peak periods because householders are self-consuming more of their electricity. For those not yet on solar, they should expect higher prices as retailers pass on the cost of maintaining our ageing coal-fired power stations and other infrastructure; which are now required to be online constantly ready to produce electricity when it’s needed (on hot summer days when everyone’s air conditioning is running at once).

The grid is getting cleaner.

The grid system is becoming less efficient. As more renewable energy comes online, the load factor for coal-fired power stations will drop. Our ageing coal fleet needs to be built bigger to run more of the time, yet fewer coal plants are being built around the world. As a result, electricity prices have been going up while greenhouse gas emissions from the grid have been going down.

This isn’t just happening in Australia. In Germany, where household solar and storage is also being embraced more widely than anywhere else on Earth, power produced from renewables reached 37% of total generation in 2016, up from 25.5% in 2011, while the share of coal has dropped from 45 to 40%.

Currently, renewable energy is cheap so being hooked up to the grid becomes a liability rather than an asset for many households and businesses. The prediction that solar power will be more affordable than fossil fuels by 2020 or 2025 may have already come true.

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Rooftop solar helps keep our air clean so that we can breathe easier.

We can retire polluting coal power stations earlier, so we breathe easier. Household batteries are the missing link in the energy revolution. They enable homes to be powered by their solar panels and stored electricity when they need it most, rather than just during the day when the sun’s out. This is crucial for creating a sustainable grid that can meet our needs as we turn to more intermittent energy sources like solar and wind.

Rooftop solar is the first step towards a distributed grid where communities can supply their renewable electricity and share it with others. This will be made even easier when battery technology improves, so we can store power for use anytime and manage peak demand by charging up batteries when electricity is cheap and abundant and releasing energy to the grid during times of heavy use.