The world is changing quickly, with new standards, technologies, and regulations emerging a day. Just believe all the obsolete phone chargers you've got within the drawer – or how often you put in new updates on your mobile device.
Again, the planet is moving fast. And nowhere is this transformation more pronounced than within the energy industry. For instance, solar panels were a fringe technology just 10 or 15 years ago.
No one likes being locked into a choice – especially with numerous changes on the horizon. However, with solar and storage solutions, it’s possible to future-proof your residential solar energy system in order that it continues delivering reliable savings for many years to return. Below are just a few of the ways in which future-proofs your home energy solution – regardless of what the longer term holds.
Solar economics are eroding
Electric utilities everywhere the country are proposing changes to their utility rate designs and net metering frameworks. In Q3 2017 alone, 41 states took action on distributed energy solar policy and/or rate design, consistent with the foremost recent 50 States of Solar Report, published by the NC Clean Energy Technology Center. The kinds of changes being proposed and implemented are all different, counting on the state and utility territory. The one commonality they share is that the changes nearly always erode the worth of solar. Meaning that the “avoided cost” that solar is able to do, gets diminished due to the about-face.
A great example of this is often the new time-of-use rates that went into effect within the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) territory in December 2017. The new rates, which solar customers are now being defaulted onto, dramatically shift the summer season on-peak period (the highest-priced energy) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., all the answer until 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. within the evening. This radical shift erodes the worth of solar, as afternoon solar production now gets valued at a lower-priced mid-peak rate, rather than the premium on-peak rate.
Modelling how an ESS can future-proof solar savings
Determining what proportion a change to rate design or NEM reduces the avoided cost of a solar project is very specific to every customer—as is quantifying what proportion an energy storage system can save them. The solution to both questions depends on a variety of project-level specifics, like the load profile of the customer, their system size and production, their utility rate schedule and therefore the about-face to be implemented. Energy Tool base has published a replacement video tutorial that illustrates the way to find out and model this sort of study.
Turning a threat into a chance
Utilities everywhere the country are proposing and implementing new changes to their rate designs and NEM frameworks. These changes nearly always erode the worth proposition of solar. This is often the truth today, and this trend is predicted to continue. The great news is that this market threat to solar is a chance for energy storage. As storage are often adaptably re-programmed to assist limit the erosion of savings from future changes. Many solar and energy storage developers are leveraging energy storage’s ability to future-proof solar PV savings as a key point to shut deals.
Protection from rising electricity costs and time-of-use charges
In a recent interview, a home-owner told us, “I don’t know where utility rates are going to be within the future, but they certainly won't be lower.” This powerful storage solution, you'll store power on-site during cheaper hours to avoid buying grid electricity when it's costliest. Combined with residential solar energy system, you'll “lock-in” self-generated power to offset unknown future electricity costs from the grid.
Infinite expansion capabilities
It’s okay if you buy a solar plus storage system to satisfy your electricity needs today, albeit you think that they could increase within the future. Because of Enphase’s modular design, our AC-coupled systems remove the necessity to switch other components when adding more solar and energy storage capacity within the future. No problem. You’ll easily add additional AC modules and exchange storage units as required – with minimal modifications required.
Put your solar savings on autopilot
Most homeowners aren't tracking utility costs from day to day or maybe year to year. That’s why we make our all-in-one system as seamless as possible to get rid of the guesswork once you should consume solar energy, stored energy, or grid power.
Our Ensemble™ energy management technology intelligently manages the electricity supply throughout your home via a user profile that you simply manage within the mobile app. Once configured, your solar system will automatically switch to the energy source that's cheapest and most available.
Backup power during grid outages
Worried about blackouts and grid outages? You’re covered there, too. Our all-in-one solar plus storage solution allows your home to seamlessly switch between grid-connected and backup modes. Albeit the remainder of the neighborhood is without power, you'll still enjoy access to reliable electricity from Recharge.
Over-the-air software updates
Every component in your solar panel benefits from over-the-air firmware updates sent via Wi-Fi. This connectivity makes it possible to upgrade your profile in real-time - supported local weather, grid prices, and other variables.
These software updates assist you to extract the foremost power from your existing system while keeping it up so far today, tomorrow, and lots of years into the longer term. Better still, you'll manage and monitor all the above through Enlighten - our dedicated mobile app. albeit you're far away from home, you continue to have cloud-based access to your PV system.
