When a battery is paired with a new or existing solar system it increases the value of the system as a whole. While solar offers inexpensive energy from a renewable source, without the assistance of a battery, its usefulness can be limited at night or during cloudy days.
With a battery, excess solar power can be stored for future use—whether that need occurs when the sun isn’t shining, when peak demand charges are high, or when the grid is down. Solar-plus-storage is the perfect combination of renewable energy and battery storage, and offers economic and environmental benefits.
What is Solar-Plus-Storage?
Solar-plus-storage is the integration of a battery with solar energy. Using this battery storage system, businesses can see greater benefits than with solar alone.
Increase the Value of Your Solar System
How Solar-Plus-Storage Saves Money
In many areas, businesses that adopt on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) technology experience a decrease in their overall energy costs relative to what they were paying their utility. Adding battery storage to a solar system creates a greater margin of savings.
Businesses can store excess solar energy and then consume that electricity during periods of peak demand. Utilities charge a premium for energy consumption during peak demand times—and these charges make up the majority of the bill for some businesses. A battery helps to limit grid consumption during these periods, effectively flattening a facility’s load curve.
In many areas a battery allows companies to participate in demand response. This market program, in conjunction with other energy solar incentives, offers payments to facilities willing to decrease electricity usage at times when the grid is under extreme stress. With a battery, organizations can earn demand response payments by shifting power from the grid to the battery, resulting in little to no operational disruption.
Maximize Your Consumption from Renewables
Because solar power requires no fossil fuels, solar systems are a renewable energy pillar. But on cloudy days, a solar system without storage may require a business to consume energy from the grid, using power derived from fossil fuel generation plants.
With battery storage, businesses can maximize their energy consumption from renewables. For organizations with explicit greenhouse gas emission targets or clean energy initiatives, a solar-plus-storage system will meet and often exceed corporate goals.
Batteries can supply stored solar energy on cloudy days
Stored solar energy is a resilient, sustainable option during power outages.
Boost Resiliency Without Sacrificing Sustainability
Solar battery storage helps prevent power loss if the grid goes down. Power outages have increased over the past several decades, and as extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent, outages may only get worse. Solar-plus-storage is one of the strongest resiliency solutions on the market and can provide backup power ranging from several hours to several days. Often, solar-plus-storage can provide enough energy for operation while still allowing organizations to achieve their sustainability goals.
Flexible Financing Options for Every Situation
Many companies may be drawn to the resiliency and sustainability value of solar-plus-storage, but hesitate at the CapEx necessary to start a project. Enel X offers a wide variety of financing options, providing businesses with payment flexibility.
Hybrid Power Purchase Agreement (hPPA) |
All-In Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) |
Direct Purchase |
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Customer pays a flat rate for solar power created and agrees to benefit share payment structure for storage assets. Benefits: discount to utility rates for solar power; incentives aligned on energy storage performance.
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Customer pays a flat rate for the power created and consumed via the solar-plus-storage system. Benefits: simple payment structure; discount to utility rates.
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Customer buys the system and pays for ongoing O&M and enrollment in energy market programs. Benefit: customer keeps 100% of the financial value after incurring project costs.
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Units: $/kWh solar + $/month storage (% split with Enel X)
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Units: $/kWh (single rate)
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Units: $$$
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