Photo courtesy Panasonic Eco Systems & Connected Technology
Homeowners across the country are discovering how home solar-plus-storage can help them save on energy costs and keep the lights on during power outages. Solar-plus-storage combines the clean, free energy generated by solar panels with the flexibility of a home battery system. The battery stores the solar power for you to use anytime, not just when the sun shines.
Even better, using solar-plus-storage can also help your neighbors. How? It’s all about supply and demand. Utility companies generate the electricity by burning carbon-intensive fuels — typically coal or natural gas — in large power plants. They then transport that energy through a vast network of wires and transformers.
When every neighborhood in a city demands more electricity, say, during a heat wave, the utility struggles to keep up. This results in more wear and tear on the grid’s infrastructure, burning even more fossil fuels, and generating even higher energy costs for everyone.
Solar-plus-storage eases pressure on the local electricity grid, resulting in reduced energy needs, fewer supply interruptions, cleaner air, and potentially lower energy bills for you and your neighbors.
Let's take a closer look at how this works.
Photo courtesy Panasonic Eco Systems
Solar panels paired with batteries provide your home with free, clean electricity that you can use 24/7. When your panels produce lots of energy during the day, your battery will store it for you to tap into at night time, during a power outage, or in times of high demand when grid electricity rates rise.
Many utilities are introducing time-of-use (TOU) rates that charge consumers more for electricity during times of high demand, typically late afternoon and evening. During times of peak demand, there's more pressure on the electricity network, which forces utilities to turn on expensive, dirty power plants to meet the demand.
Connecting solar panels to a home battery system means you can avoid higher TOU rates. Solar-plus-storage boosts your energy independence and resilience, helping to shield your exposure to volatile utility company prices.
Solar homeowners also benefit from utilities that offer net metering. Net metering allows you to sell unused energy from your solar system back to the grid. Under this plan, utility companies keep track of how much energy they receive and credit your next utility bill. Net metering saves you money, and it reduces the need for carbon-intensive fuel.
Consider the hottest days of the year, when electricity demand surges as people ramp up their air conditioners. As demand rises, so do electricity prices, as utilities struggle to meet this demand. But the hottest time of day is also when solar panels produce the most power, easing pressure on the grid.
When paired with battery storage, that solar power is even more flexible. That flexibility reduces strain on the wires and structures that supply grid electricity to homes. This means fewer supply interruptions, such as blackouts and brownouts, and less chance your utility will have to upgrade or expand its network — costs that are ultimately passed onto consumers.
Another benefit? As fewer homes depend on electricity generated from large, fossil fuel-fired power plants, the air quality in your local area could improve. Power plants will release less CO2 and pollution into the air.
Grid electricity demand spikes in the evenings when families return home from work and begin using their appliances. But as the sun goes down, solar generation declines, and homes start drawing power from the grid.
This imbalance between solar production and electricity demand is challenging for utilities to manage. When demand peaks, utilities often have to turn on older, more expensive power plants that are only used for 40 to 100 hours each year. Utilities want to reduce how often they need to use these plants, which is where batteries come in.
Homeowners with batteries can switch from using the grid to their battery, reducing demand from the grid and making it less likely that the utility will need to supplement energy from auxiliary power plants. In fact, the benefits are so significant that many utilities across the U.S. are starting to offer rebates and incentives for batteries.
California's Self-Generation Incentive Program, for example, offers a dollar-per-kilowatt rebate for energy storage. Maryland offers residents a 30 percent state income tax credit — up to $5,000 — for the cost of a storage system, and Massachusetts, which pays a per-kilowatt-hour incentive to homeowners with solar, is adding another incentive if they also install storage.
Incentives such as these, combined with the federal investment tax credit that allows homeowners to receive a credit for up to 30 percent of the cost of a solar-plus-storage system,* pairing a battery with solar panels is becoming an increasingly compelling proposition. It’s the perfect solution for increasing energy independence while making households — and neighborhoods — more resilient.
Ready to save money, protect your home during power outages, and help strengthen your local power grid? Learn more about Panasonic's best in class solar-plus-storage solutions.
*Visit Energy.gov and speak with a tax accountant to find out if you qualify for the FITC.