Solar Battery Storage vs The Smart Export Guarantee
Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels work by absorbing energy from the sun throughout the day, this energy is then converted into electricity which can be used to power your home. Due to their efficiency, your PV panels will usually leave you with excess energy that you do not use. There are two options for what you can do with this surplus of energy; either store it in a solar battery storage system, or feed it back to the national grid.
What is Solar Battery Storage?
When you produce more energy than you require, a solar battery storage system allows you to store this excess energy until you need to use it. This works by the battery being charged throughout the day by your solar power, ready to be discharged whenever you decide to use it. This is a great way of utilising your solar power to be entirely energy independent, since the energy you store in your solar battery could be used to power your home at night when your PV panels aren’t generating any electricity.
Not only does this maximise efficiency by reducing your energy wastage, but it omits the need for you to rely on electricity companies to power your home at night, when energy use tends to be at its highest. The benefit of this? You save money on electricity costs (which are on the rise) and reduce your carbon footprint, as you won’t be using electricity from companies that source their energy from fossil fuels.
What is the Smart Export Guarantee?
If you do not own a solar battery to store the energy surplus generated by your PV panels, it will be exported to the grid. What does this have to do with the Smart Export Guarantee? Well, put in simple terms, it’s a way to get paid for your excess power. This is to incentivise more people to switch to using renewable electricity resources.
For each kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy you export to the grid, electricity suppliers will offer you payment. For example, Octopus Energy will offer you …. per kWh of your surplus energy put onto the grid (required you are on their tariff), while Tesla will offer you 24-26p per kWh (required you are on their Tesla Energy Plan and own a Tesla Powerwall).
Which Should You Go For?
So, which is better? Whilst getting paid for your excess power sounds like a great deal, it is actually less economical than it seems. You often end up paying more to buy the electricity back from your energy supplier when you need it, than you get for selling the same amount of electricity to them when you don’t need it. Furthermore, the electricity you do buy from them is not guaranteed to be renewable, since they predominantly source their energy from fossil fuels.
By storing your surplus of energy (for free) in a solar battery, on the other hand, you have the electricity you need, when you need to use it. This ultimately makes solar battery storage the more economical and more sustainable option.
Thinking of installing a solar battery for your home solar PV system? Flowing Energy Solutions offers a range of high-quality solar batteries that could help you save over a tonne and a half of carbon dioxide per year. Contact our solar power experts today to find out more.
