The Evolution of Home Solar Batteries
The key benefits of solar batteries are well known - homeowners gain greater independence from the grid and reduce electricity bills.This became quite evident during theCOVID lockdown at the beginning of 2020.
With solar and energy storage increasingly becoming an ‘essential service’ in households, many homeowners are looking to understand what are the advantages of the latest energy storage systems. Here are some of the ways that home solar batteries are evolving and having a broader understanding of this can help homeowners think about energy generation differently.
The advancements in solar battery technology
Solar batteries have changed in many ways since they first hit the market. Not only are they becoming affordable and more accessible, they are also more reliable and efficient.
Here are some other solar battery developments:
- Smart energy systems – examples of these systems include built-in energy management and energy monitoring technology.
- Safer chemistry – an excellent example of this is lithium-ion-phosphate (LFP) which operates with greater stability, can withstand high temperatures and is less volatile than some other battery chemistries.
- Useful during outages – some solar battery systems, like sonnenBatteries, now have the capacity to kick-in during a grid blackout to provide backup power.
- Flexible modular systems – homeowners now have the flexibility to expand their battery system capacity rather than installing the maximum capacity in one go.
The evolution of solar battery storage continues beyond the hardware and now extends to the energy market. To make it more financially attractive for homeowners to install batteries, energy retailers and some battery manufacturers are taking advantage of new types of energy plans that leverage their battery and grid energy requirements, and enable them to use power more effectively, reducing carbon emissions.
With the sonnenConnect energy product, sonnen provides a range of new options for households who wish to create further value from their battery whilst maintaining the freedom of choosing their desired energy retailer. sonnenConnect offers sonnenBatterie owners a financial benefit when they provide sonnen access to their battery to stabilise the grid.
Becoming more energy independent with solar power batteries
There have been significant discussions around the ways in which we can reduce our reliance on centralised fossil fuel generators and transition towards increasing the use of clean energy in our electricity system.
Increases in home solar battery efficiency are allowing homeowners to become clean energy generators in their own right. And they can also use their solar battery system to be part of a decentralised virtual power plant (VPP).
Homeowners that install a sonnenBatterie can supply most of their own energy needs and they can now link with other sonnen members as part of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) to share any unused energy that can benefit anyone who’s connected to the electricity grid.
As well as providing another avenue for homeowners to gain value from their solar, VPPs help stabilise the public electricity grid. The grid is at risk of overloading when not enough power is consumed from it. By automatically storing and absorbing unused power, solar panel batteries can help prevent this from happening.
What is certain is that as home solar batteries continue to evolve, so too will the ways in which consumers can take the power into their own hands!
Talk to us today about becoming more energy independent with a sonnenBatterie.
