2023-08-22 20:23:58
Solar energy from your own roof is starting to show puffs of warm air on chilly days. Residents greatly benefit from keeping it at home. If solar power slips out of the front door towards the public power grid, it will cost residents money. Energy companies, Vandebron in the lead, collect a feed-in premium. Moreover, the favorable netting seems to be lapsed.
“This creates more incentive to use solar power directly indoors,” says Han Slootweg, professor of smart energy systems at Eindhoven University of Technology. “That might lead to the home battery gaining popularity.” These are batteries, the size of a holiday suitcase, in which electricity is stored.
For fun
A few thousand Dutch people already have such a mega battery in their garage. They bought such a battery (like Tesla’s Powerwall) for thousands of euros. Especially ‘for fun’, as a toy with their solar panels. Because it is not profitable to use a home battery; the investment cannot be recovered.
“It is still not financially rewarding,” says Brendan de Graaf, director of Lyv, a provider of energy services including home batteries. “But the introduction of a feed-in levy and the approaching phasing out of net metering are changing that. It will become more attractive.”
Various price ranges
That would be a good thing, says De Graaf, and not just for his company. Energy storage can prevent sustainable energy from going unused and relieves the crowded power grid. He eagerly awaits the moment when energy storage takes off in the Netherlands. Neighboring countries, where re-supply is already less favourable, are further ahead. “The Germans have 300,000 home batteries, the Belgians 100,000.”
Home batteries come in all price ranges, explains De Graaf. “It starts at 3,000 euros, but you also have them from 15,000 euros.”
Logically, the cheapest versions seem to be the first to become interesting for households. A poll by Milieu Centraal previously showed that people would be willing to spend an average of no more than 3,000 euros on a home battery.
Plug car as a battery
Grid operator Liander, itself active in energy storage pilot projects, has confirmed its cautious interest, partly due to the high energy prices. Only when it is possible will most people invest. “You have to dig a lot into your pockets, assuming that you will be able to cover the costs.”
Anyone considering driving an electric car can kill two birds with one stone. A plug-in car has a battery. Anyone who can plug it in at home can store solar energy in it. Removing the electricity there, to wash or vacuum, will become more common in the future. More and more e-cars are equipped with technology that enables ‘bi-directional’ charging.
Neighborhood battery
A third option is not to use a battery on your own, but together with local residents. Not a home battery, but a neighborhood battery. Various pilot projects in the Netherlands have already shown that it works technically.
The only point is: a neighborhood battery is on the street. The electricity from solar panels therefore still enters the general power grid, even if only for a small part. “When residents purchase their solar power once more, they still pay the purchase price plus taxes,” says Professor Slootweg, also affiliated with network company Enexis.
“Unfortunately, it is like having a vegetable garden, handing over your vegetables over the fence to the greengrocer and then having to buy them back from him with VAT on them,” he sighs.
Undesirable, also in view of the pursuit of efficient use of land and materials. Building a neighborhood battery here and there is better for the environment than dozens of small ones for individual households, according to Milieu Centraal.
The House of Representatives asked the outgoing cabinet to remove ‘barriers’ to the use of neighborhood batteries.
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