3 Ways to Store Your Solar Energy
Yes, you can store solar panel excess energy for later use!
Homeowners are increasingly turning to solar energy as an alternative energy source. Solar panels are great at reducing electricity bills, generating clean energy, and making it more self-sufficient.
However, many solar panels generate more energy than necessary to power a house at any given moment. This excess energy must be stored if it is to later be used. There are many options for homeowners to store their excess solar power in their home.
Batteries
The most popular option for homeowners is to use solar energy stored in batteries. The batteries are charged when the sun shines and produce enough energy to charge them. The stored electricity can be used at night or in the evening when there isn’t enough sunlight to power your solar panels. Your budget and the storage requirements of your solar system will determine which battery type you choose. Although lead acid batteries are the most common and readily available, lithium-ion batteries offer greater storage capacity and a longer life span with fewer maintenance requirements.
Net Metering
Net metering is a system that permits excess electricity from solar panel to be sold back into your local grid for credit against future utility company bills. In the US most states have net billing laws, which requires utility companies to credit customers if they generate additional electricity using renewable energy systems like wind turbines and solar panels. To make it possible to use the extra electricity your solar arrays produce later on, you will receive credit back into your account.
For more information on other countries’ policies, you check out our blogpost.
Grid-Tied Inverters
Grid-tied inverters let you take advantage of net metering without needing to install additional batteries or storage solutions for your solar panels. These inverters are directly connected to your solar panel array and the grid, which allows them to transmit any additional electricity generated by the system back into it for credit against future utility bills. This is similar to net metering systems. You don’t need additional equipment to this setup. This makes it more cost-effective than installing separate batteries and other storage solutions for the system.
Fun fact! Products like Tesla’s Powerwall allow you to store up excess power from both renewable sources such as wind and sun as well as traditional sources like natural gas or coal-fired plants.
Storing excess energy from home solar panels has become increasingly important as more people switch over from traditional energy sources for their homes’ power needs. There are several different ways that homeowners can store this extra power such as using batteries, taking advantage of net metering programs offered by many utilities companies, or using grid tied inverters connected directly between their solar array and the main grid lines which provide credits against future electric bills just like net metering does without having additional equipment installed such as batteries or other storage solutions.
All of these options make it easier than ever before for homeowners who have invested in a home based renewable energy source such as a photovoltaic (PV) system or small wind turbine generator (WTG) system, to get maximum value out of their investment while helping reduce their environmental impact at the same time!
