By Allison Ruedig, freelance copywriter, Aurora Solar
Could selling battery storage be the key to growing your solar installation business?
Several industry leaders think so.
In July, Aurora hosted its first ever virtual summit dedicated to navigating the unique challenges and possible opportunities amid COVID-19. One of the most popular sessions of the summit was “Charging Up Your Sales with Battery Storage.”
In this post we’ll go over the top takeaways that industry leaders from Panasonic, Sunnova, CALSSA and GAF Energy shared during the session. We’ll cover:
- Why storage is becoming increasingly important to homeowners
- How to position storage to close more solar + storage deals
- What the future of storage looks like and how to take advantage of it
Read the advice from solar experts on Aurora Solar’s website.
People are finding about the benefits of independent lifestyle whereby the dependence on the traditional service providers like governments is declining. Producing their own food and energy is becoming fashionable in addition to being increasingly necessary and Solar energy plays a pivotal role as for as energy production is concerned. Thanks for the wonderful perspective presented in your article.
As the desperate IOU utilities try to hang onto their “regulated monopoly” grid and operations, the TOU will sweep nationwide in the coming years trying to dilute the overall value of one installing solar PV on the roof of their home or small business. As folks start back to ‘work-a-day’ lives these typical TOU rate spiking programs are usually from 4 PM to 9 PM each day, just when folks get home for work and settle in for the evening. Most folks have this time of day to feed, entertain, get ready for bed to get up for tomorrows work. The utilities say, well, if you do your laundry and bake cookies after 9 PM then you get the lower electricity rate. Yeah, for most, not going to happen. To stay away from this usury, when one installs solar PV on their roof, then smart ESS and setting the system up for self consumption and after hours stored solar energy generation with the ability of the system to charge up the battery with off peak electricity late at night creating that arbitrage for the next day’s energy requirements.
People will have to see solar PV and smart ESS as the ‘system to install’, when the conversation turns to alternative energy for personal daily use. Solar PV, smart ESS, just another appliance to enhance one’s living experience. Most folks have washer, dryer, refrigerator/freezers in their homes now, the solar PV appliance is another way for an appliance to make life a little easier. In every home budget one has reoccurring overhead costs like the electric bill, cable bill, internet bill, gas bill, cell phone bill, program services bill, then there’s groceries, insurance, taxes. Now wouldn’t it be nice to have an appliance that can erase a monthly electric bill and that money could be used for groceries, insurance or put towards one or more of the other bills each month? California has demonstrated that when electricity rates get above $0.12/kWh solar PV will pay for itself in about 10 years. At $0.16/kWh around 7 years, having a smart ESS to self consume solar PV generation from the day into the TOU rate at night can eliminate rate spiking and decrease electricity costs even more per day. Some folks have chimed in that they put in the solar PV and smart ESS system with a ROI of around 15 years in their particular electric service area. When these folks bought a BEV and charged at home, the savings in regular gas station visits stopped and they paid for their system in about 3 years.