Home solar battery storage is finally becoming a reality in Australia. Suitable battery storage has long been a limitation for solar-powered homes, but now it seems that technology is finally catching up with demand, and batteries for storing power in-home applications will soon be commonplace in Australia. The Climate Council has reported that within the next decade improved battery technology will increase battery storage capacity 50-fold, whilst also seeing reductions in the cost of batteries to householders.
Currently, solar-powered systems without battery storage must be connected to the grid to upload excess power during the day and draw power at night when no power is being produced. With the introduction of batteries for excess storage and drawdown, a much more efficient system would be possible. This would, in fact, revolutionise solar power in Australia allowing homes to become much more independent of the existing power grid. It will also likely provide huge cost savings for the 1.4 million householders who currently have solar panels on their roofs, with the potential for ‘zero dollar’ power bills.
At the moment the cost for batteries sufficient for a home is around $12,000, which would take about eight to ten years to recover in electricity bills (at current prices), but this cost is likely to greatly decrease over the next decade. The Climate Council report released recently claims that power generated from a solar panel battery storage combination could provide the most cost-effective power to households within three years.
Sources
Baird, R. 21 October, 2015. Home battery storage to ‘revolutionise’ solar industry in Australia: Climate Council report.
Diss, K. 8 October, 2015. Perth gets first home powered almost totally by solar.
Milman, O. 21 October, 2015. Australia ‘could become world leader in solar home battery storage’.