What is Energy Storage and how does it work?
Energy Storage is designed to maximise the self-use of onsite generated power, like solar, to benefit from multi-tariff differences or for energy trading and grid services. Preferably all of these can be used together to provide revenue, energy security and independence, lower bills and the knowledge you are maximising your opportunity to generate clean energy for your home, business or community.
What's the best Energy Storage for me?
Energy Storage can be AC-coupled or DC-coupled.
AC-coupled storage has batteries connected to an inverter, which is connected to the grid. Charging and discharging is done by converting AC to DC or vice-versa. It will monitor the grid and solar (if installed) to store and release energy. Or it can work on timed basis to take advantage of low rate tariffs. It can be installed with or without renewables and when co-located with solar can be retro-fitted universally.
DC-coupled systems use hybrid inverters which have the solar as well as batteries connected to it's DC inputs. Charging and discharging can be done via the DC 'bus' without converting, so is more efficient. Hybrid inverters are all-in-one solar inverter-battery chargers. Though slightly more efficient, they don't tend to work well with 3rd party equipment, so you're often tied in to their 'ecosystem', though most manufacturers offer their own diverters, switches and other devices to improve self-use of solar or stored energy. Hybrids can be a good idea installed with solar, but have limitations compared to the AC-coupled flexibilty.
How much storage do I need? This will depend on your usage and your requirements, but as a rule of thumb, with solar PV, it's 1 to 2kWh of storage per kWp of solar. We've found that it's usually 2kWh at minimum for most, but storage tends to be modular, so capacity can be increased if quickly found to be worthwhile
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