Solar batteries are quickly becoming a very important part of solar panel systems, in addition to inverters and obviously panels. 

Especially with the most recent natural disasters and outages, solar batteries have proved themselves to be invaluable to homeowners, striving to become more energy independent. 

Read more to find out about the pros and cons of pairing battery storage with your solar panel system, as this solution may not be suitable for all circumstances.

Some of you may ask why you should buy a solar battery when you can use the credit given by the grid when sending back excess power. Well, there are several great advantages homeowners can take advantage of when pairing their solar panel system with battery storage.

Keep reading to find out more!

Usually the main reason why homeowners choose a battery storage system is that it gives them the ability to have useful backup power during outages, whether planned or not, including PSPS (Planned Safety Power Shutoffs).

In the event of a power outage, if you have a solar panel system but not battery storage, the solar system will automatically turn off. This is because it is required that solar systems shut down during power outages in case they accidentally backfeed live power onto the grid. If the utility company is doing repair work, this could be an issue for repair workers trying to fix the lines.

If you have a solar and battery system, you would usually install an additional device called backup gateway, which allows the property to isolate itself from the grid during a power outage.

When an outage occurs, the gateway quickly detects the occurrence and disconnects all power from the grid, and automatically turns on the battery. Then the system basically becomes a closed loop, that is the battery powers the home’s backup circuits whilst the solar panels are recharging the battery.

So in a way, solar batteries can function similarly to home generators, only they are much better in so many ways!

A lot of utility companies are now starting to apply time of use (TOU) rate plans for residential customers. These rates are more accurate in reflecting changes in wholesale power prices throughout the day.

This means that there are peak charges, usually during late afternoon/early evening, when the majority of customers are home from work and increase the power consumption, and off-peak charges, which are during the day, when solar systems are producing the maximum excess power, and overnight, when demand is lowest.

Obviously this difference in rates tends to affect the cost of electricity drawn from the grid, but also the value of excess electricity that is fed back to the grid.

What does that mean for homeowners on time of use rate plans?

Well, typically it means that they can receive less credit for the extra power generated by their solar system during the day, and have to pay for power needed in the evening. Subsequently, this means that homeowners may owe money to utility companies even if their solar panel system fully met their power demand. 

But there’s no need to panic! With solar batteries you can store the excess power and use it later at night, rather than backfeeding it into the grid. This considerably reduces the amount of electricity that needs to be drawn from the grid during peak times.

There are obviously several factors to take into account when considering savings that a solar battery can provide, such as how much electricity is required, what time of the day power is used the most and the structure of their specific rate plan.

Another advantage of pairing a solar system with a battery is that you can use more of your own clean and sustainable energy throughout the day.

Without a battery, you would be sending excess solar-generated energy into the grid during the day, and then drawing non solar-generated energy at night.

Please keep in mind that there are still environmental impacts from manufacturing and recycling battery components, but in the bigger picture, they still considerably outweigh the huge negative impacts of non-stop fossil fuel use. 

When installing a battery storage system, you will be able to produce, store and use your own, clean energy all day long. This not only gives you satisfaction of producing and using your own green energy, but also gives you the chance to be more independent from the grid.