If you are considering installing solar panels, you may be wondering whether it makes sense to add batteries to store the electricity produced and not consumed. There are many criteria to take into account to make the right choice. Your consumer profile, the power and number of electrical appliances you use, the presence of a swimming pool, your heating method, and finally your desire for autonomy are all elements to be taken into account. In order to give you as much advice as possible, we have asked AB Services, an expert in renewable energy, for more explanations on how a photovoltaic installation with battery works.
The operation of a photovoltaic installation
A standard photovoltaic installation includes: one or more inverters, a roof or ground mounting system, solar panels of course, surge protection boxes, and sometimes an intelligent control system, which is called home automation. Solar panels collect the energy of the sun and transform it into electricity. This electricity then passes through the inverter and is converted into alternating current. To ensure that the electricity produced can be consumed in the home, the majority of residential photovoltaic power plants are connected to the electricity grid. According to AB Services, when the solar panels produce more electricity than you consume at a given time, the excess is sold to ENEDIS for 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. When you need more energy than your panels can provide at a given time, you buy your electricity from your usual supplier.
How solar batteries work
The solar batteries will store the current produced by the panels to be reused later. In fact, when you install solar batteries, you will have the ability to store the energy you don’t consume instead of selling it back to the grid. So later in the evening, when the panels are no longer producing, you can go and draw on this reserve. You will only have power when your battery is fully charged and you will only buy power when your battery is completely discharged and your panels are not producing.
In short, solar batteries give you the opportunity to store excess energy production and reuse it when the sun goes down. If you wish to be completely autonomous from the EDF network, you will have to equip yourself with more battery power and you will not be able to resell your surplus electricity produced to EDF.
For AB Services, the number of solar batteries to be installed, their power as well as their technology will depend on the desired autonomy duration and the electricity consumption of your house. It is therefore impossible to give a precise number of batteries to be installed, as the dimensioning must be calculated as accurately as possible in relation to your needs. But for a home running on all-electricity, it will be quite expensive to obtain an autonomy of several days, whereas a home with a small electrical consumption can reach an autonomy of two days quite easily and without adding extra batteries.
