How to store energy from solar panels?

A cutting-edge startup that combinations solar power and electric battery storage reflects wider interest incorporating the technologies.

The intermittency of solar powered energy makes distributed storage important to its future.

An increasing number of companies are actually attempting to sell large-scale electric battery storage along with solar power installments to reduce costs and also to address difficulties introduced because of the periodic nature of solar powered energy, that is created only once the sun is shining.

A SunEdison solar power installation in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Last week the U.S. solar giant SunEdison launched so it had acquired Solar Grid Storage, a startup that integrates solar power installments with battery pack storage space. And SolarCity, the greatest solar energy installer when you look at the U.S., is almost done installing 430 combined solar and storage systems in a pilot program inside San Francisco Bay area; the business intends to roll-out technology more commonly come early july.

The U.S. Department of Energy, at the same time, is gathering proposals for $15 million well worth of research projects aimed at finding more efficient methods to combine photovoltaic and storage space technology. One goal is reduce the expense of saving solar powered energy to a maximum of the projected average U.S. grid price for residential power in 2020: 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. Solar power storage at this time costs about 20 dollars to $1 per kilowatt-hour.

As more solar power is installed, intermittency can be more of difficulty. At exactly the same time, though, the grid storage space which could assist compensate for this issue is now cheaper, and brand new converter technology can be utilized both for.

Tom Leyden, previously CEO of Solar Grid storing and from now on SunEdison’s vice president for energy storage implementation, states his company is using an electric converter that connects both a photovoltaic range and a battery pack to your grid. Solar panels and battery packs both need converters simply because they produce direct current (DC) power, whereas power grids carry alternating electric current (AC).

The organization’s four running jobs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and nj-new jersey tend to be partnerships. The consumer buys solar panel systems for its site, and Leyden’s operation provides a 10-by-20-foot shipping container keeping the dual-use energy converter and lithium-ion battery packs.

Within level of a sunshiney day, for example, the converter is mainly creating AC power from host’s solar power panels. After all other times, however, it feeds free capacity to the battery to offer the regional utility.

The solar income tax break for mixed system is slated to drop from 30 % associated with the gear price to 10% in 2017, but Leyden states the dual-use converters should also fall in cost as more are produced.