In the near future, your home could be battery-operated. The rise of these home batteries is being driven by a powerful need, says Ravi Manghani, of GTM Research: renewable energy. Without batteries and other means of energy storage, the ability of utility companies to deliver power could eventually be threatened.
Batteries are good for keeping power going in a disaster, as customers of the two biggest firms by sales volume in this field, Sonnen Inc. and Tesla Inc., demonstrated in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. And in combination with rooftop solar panels, they free people from total dependence on the grid — a kind of energy cable-cutting that wonks call “grid defection.”
Real-estate developer Mandalay Homes recently announced a plan to build up to 4,000 ultra energy-efficient homes that will feature eight kilowatt-hour batteries from German maker Sonnen. It could eventually be the biggest home energy-storage project in the United States, says Blake Richetta, senior vice president at Sonnen.
While the Mandalay Homes project is still in the blueprint stage, with only one test home built so far, this kind of radical, battery-enabled rethink of the grid is already happening in Vermont.
In partnership with Tesla Energy, Green Mountain Power (GMP) is offering 2,000 of its customers the opportunity to have a Tesla Powerwall in their home for $15 a month. GMP also uses batteries from Sonnen, SimpliPhi and Sunverge. GMP’s Chief executive, Ms. Powell says the larger battle for home battery storage will be over how each of these companies — and dozens of others — differentiates itself, selling different size batteries adapted for different uses in homes, businesses and utilities.
The biggest challenge to home battery storage remains economics. Utilities’ current rate structures do not charge most homeowners for using excess power, nor do they change the price based on time of day. For the overwhelming majority of homeowners, the payback on a solar power system with battery storage could take decades.
Batteries are not the only way to reduce the need for short-order energy, or so-called “demand response,” says Mr. Romito, Arizona’s Public Service. Smart thermostats, managed by the utility company, can precool homes when solar power is at peak production, reducing load on the grid in the evening.
In states where electricity is more affordable, it is still early days for batteries in homes. But Mr Romito says users and utilities will continue to move toward them with the inexorable addition of more and more renewables to the grid. Mr Manghani of GTM Research agrees. His battery storage adoption forecasts track closely with states and regions where renewable energy is being generated.
Falling prices also help. Battery pack prices have decreased. Cheaper batteries shorten the resulting payback period, which in turn makes renewable energy more attractive to home owners. In 2016, solar grew faster than any other energy source, according to the International Energy Agency.
Read more here.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 16 October 2017