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I would really like a setup where my roof top solar panels makes me self-sufficient for energy needs, but the key hurdle is battery storage. In a town house in

I would really like a setup where my roof top solar panels makes me self-sufficient for energy needs, but the key hurdle is battery storage. In a town house in Netherlands, for a family of three, I use on an average 250 kWh of electricity (excluding heating by gas) per month. I’m getting solar panels installed in my roof to the tune of 10 x 420wp panels expected to generate 280kWh of electricity per month. My primary concern about batteries is the fire risk. Even if I were to take on the risk and have a battery bank in the garden shed, they’d essentially give me a buffer of about half a day’s worth of buffer. This makes it really not worth taking on the risk for such a little benefit, and continue to rely on the grid as my battery. I’m waiting for that energy storage breakthrough that would allow me to store the excess energy generated in the summer for use in the winter. May be producing hydrogen safely in the backyard or have a tank of compressed air below the garden or some kind of flow battery that can be buried under the garden shed etc. Hopefully it comes to life while I still make money and have the interest to do all this :-)

guiriduro 3y ago
Don't really see why people with solar that are connected to the grid actually want to install batteries at all. There's the cost, fire risk, and just the simple alternative of selling excess production for free/discounted grid usage at other times. You're still saving the planet to the same degree, and doing it more cheaply too, with fewer things to go wrong.
- lightedman 3y ago
  "Don't really see why people with solar that are connected to the grid actually want to install batteries at all." Power load smoothing, emergency backup. I been through a couple of natural disasters, and you quickly realize storage of power is just as key as power generation.
  - tuukkah 3y ago
    To reduce the storage needs, I think most people could be flexible with their power usage during emergencies, high prices or bad (local) production. For example, I can typically postpone big-screen movie nights, doing the hoovering/laundry, cooking in the (electric) oven, heating the (electric) sauna. For one day every now and then, it's no problem to turn off the convenience heating of the bathroom floor either. You can check your power consumption during sleeping hours to get a base level. Then, on a normal day, I use 3 to 10 kWh but can fairly painlessly cut it down to 1.5 kWh if needed, which would be more feasible to store in a battery.
- forgotusername6 3y ago
  In the UK feed in tariff is terrible. There's almost no point at the moment in generating more than you use because you get so little for it. Some of the biggest suppliers are only paying ~4p to feed in compared to the average price of 34p per kWh.
  - guiriduro 3y ago
    Arguably the UK/NL isn't so great for individual solar production anyway. But there are still good options: buy from a on/offshore wind provider, hydro too.
  - mattferderer 3y ago
    US is similar in some locations (I can't speak for all as I'm sure it varies greatly). I pay a connection fee to use the utility that some months cost more than I pay for electricity. On average half my bill is a fixed connectivity fee. I will say though we have amazing service that rarely ever goes out & all the lines are underground.
literalAardvark 3y ago
If even battery fire risk bothers you, you should really reconsider burying bombs in your backyard. Compressed gas cylinders are _terrifying_, a larger one with an inert gas could level your entire house, and a hydrogen one could level the entire block.

guiriduro 3y ago

Don't really see why people with solar that are connected to the grid actually want to install batteries at all. There's the cost, fire risk, and just the simple alternative of selling excess production for free/discounted grid usage at other times. You're still saving the planet to the same degree, and doing it more cheaply too, with fewer things to go wrong.

lightedman 3y ago
"Don't really see why people with solar that are connected to the grid actually want to install batteries at all." Power load smoothing, emergency backup. I been through a couple of natural disasters, and you quickly realize storage of power is just as key as power generation.
- tuukkah 3y ago
  To reduce the storage needs, I think most people could be flexible with their power usage during emergencies, high prices or bad (local) production. For example, I can typically postpone big-screen movie nights, doing the hoovering/laundry, cooking in the (electric) oven, heating the (electric) sauna. For one day every now and then, it's no problem to turn off the convenience heating of the bathroom floor either. You can check your power consumption during sleeping hours to get a base level. Then, on a normal day, I use 3 to 10 kWh but can fairly painlessly cut it down to 1.5 kWh if needed, which would be more feasible to store in a battery.
forgotusername6 3y ago
In the UK feed in tariff is terrible. There's almost no point at the moment in generating more than you use because you get so little for it. Some of the biggest suppliers are only paying ~4p to feed in compared to the average price of 34p per kWh.
- guiriduro 3y ago
  Arguably the UK/NL isn't so great for individual solar production anyway. But there are still good options: buy from a on/offshore wind provider, hydro too.
- mattferderer 3y ago
  US is similar in some locations (I can't speak for all as I'm sure it varies greatly). I pay a connection fee to use the utility that some months cost more than I pay for electricity. On average half my bill is a fixed connectivity fee. I will say though we have amazing service that rarely ever goes out & all the lines are underground.

literalAardvark 3y ago

If even battery fire risk bothers you, you should really reconsider burying bombs in your backyard. Compressed gas cylinders are _terrifying_, a larger one with an inert gas could level your entire house, and a hydrogen one could level the entire block.