For those who can’t already claim some form of payment for generating their own energy, or who will face vastly reduced incentives from 2016, there would seem to be few reasons to invest in renewable energy such as solar PV.  Recent coverage of the Tesla home energy storage system has interested many, but a lot of people don’t seem to realise that this is something that you can do now.

If you already have solar pv, and sell your surplus to the grid, and like many people have a day job, you are selling power to the utility company at a low price all day, and then returning home, and buying it back at a higher price.  This is madness.

Even a relatively modest battery set will allow you to store energy generated during the day, and then use it when it is needed, selling only genuine surplus back to the grid. Even then there are ways to use that surplus to heat water or space, and save on fuel bills.

You may not be self sufficient in energy (although with careful use, you might), but you’ll certainly buy less power from the grid.

Yes there is a capital cost in the batteries, but as the price of electricity rises inexorably (it has nearly doubled in 8 years), that investment is going to look increasingly attractive. If you already claim ROCs or FITs the alterations need not affect your certification, and if grid connections aren’t available for your renewable installation you can still run a system that allows you to store and use power, with the grid as a backup if your store runs low.

Because of the sheer numbers of people who ask about home energy storage, or off grid systems we are thinking of running an information day here, with some demonstrations of how our own setup works, and some more detail from a ‘proper’ engineer. If you are interested, let us know, and we’ll keep you posted. Click here to send your name and express an interest.