The topic of home energy storage has made its way into some of the biggest media outlets in Australia, with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald running identical pieces in their respective “Money” sections, along with an easy-to-understand and entertaining video explaining how battery storage systems work.
The article, by “Money” writer David Potts, outlines the case for solar + home battery storage in a way that has not yet been fully articulated in Australia’s mainstream press – even as the solar industry has been talking about it for the last several years.
In the piece, Mr Potts runs through all of the points that make solar + storage such a potentially compelling value proposition for Aussie households: high retail electricity prices, low solar installation prices and feed-in tariff incentives that are nominal at best for new solar homes (some of the older homes have legacy feed-in tariffs.)
It also includes an ‘action plan for solar’:
Action plan for solar
- Check your last four energy bills to see how much power you use and when. This will tell you the size of the system you need.
- Only generate power you need – feed-in tariffs aren’t worth it.
- Ask your energy company what your new night tariff will be.
- Use a Clean Energy Council approved installer (see solaraccreditation.com.au).
- Get three quotes. Sites such as Clean Energy Council and Solar Choice can arrange this.
He stops short, however, of recommending battery storage for the common solar home, saying: “It’s not economic just yet to store the energy your solar panels generate, but it’s close.”
Given the incredible rise of interest in battery storage that Solar Choice has witnessed in since the beginning of the year, and the fact the ‘early adopter’ segment are already moving to have battery systems installed, it’s not surprising that SMH has chosen to publish an article on the topic. But the energy storage revolution may be even closer than anyone anticipates.
© 2015 Solar Choice Pty Ltd
