Battery storage could become the ‘norm’ for Aussie homes

Australian homes can expect electricity storage to become a common concept in a matter of just a few years. With the savings that can be made from combining battery storage facilities with rooftop solar panels, this technology could well become the ‘norm’ according to the head of California-based company Enphase Energy, reported the SMH.

Paul Nahi, Chief Executive Officer of Enphase, said he expected the introduction of battery storage to transform the entire power grid and bring it into the 21st century.

On his visit to Sydney for the launch of Enphase's "home energy solution" system that combines solar generation, energy control and battery storage, Mr Nahi also added that: "The grid today is far and away the most complex and sophisticated invention on the 20th century. However, it is not necessarily the ideal solution for the 21st century. We have to reinvent the grid for the 21st century."

According to Mr Nahi, storage was driving a "revolution" in energy supply, accelerating the move to distributed generation. It would lead to "a different kind of grid that relies on residential energy systems and commercial energy systems, along with centralised power production".

The energy solution system is a 1.2-kilowatt-hour "plug-and-play" device, which is designed to allow homeowners to optimise control of their energy supply, depending on factors such as solar conditions, electricity charges and feed-in tariffs. The Enphase system will be priced to installers at $1150 per kilowatt-hour although the final costs to households, will be based on additional costs charged by distributors and installers, according to the SMH.

With over 1.4 million households having fitted solar photovoltaic panels, Australia has one of the world's highest penetration levels of rooftop solar energy. But Mr Nahi anticipates an early end to the installation of rooftop solar without an integrated storage system.

"The days of somebody buying a solar system are very soon going to be behind us and what we're going to see is somebody buying an energy system, which will include generation – which is going to be solar – storage, the management of the loads themselves and then a larger energy-management system that wraps everything together," he said.

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