As a California-based company, Solar.com is painfully aware of the devastating effect that grid blackouts and power outages can have on homeowners. Just in late 2020, more than half million California residents were left without power. These outages left many homeowners wondering what they can do to secure their homes against future blackouts and outages.

Whole house batteries are a new solution to this problem, and when paired with solar energy, become a very attractive way to protect your home against power outages with solar batteries as compared to generators.

Pricing

For many homeowners, especially those living in states where electricity is most expensive, (NY, MA, CA, NJ, to name a few) going solar with a battery backup will save thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the system. Whole-house backup generators range in pricing from similar to house batteries (~$5,000), all the way up to $10,000 and more. With today’s financing options for solar, you can get a full solar system installed on your roof with a battery backup for no upfront cost. Not only that, but you’ll most likely pay less than your current monthly electricity bill. What’s more, there aren’t nearly as many of the same incentives and financing options for home generators as there are for solar backup batteries. If you go solar and get a battery at the same time, you can likely roll the cost of your battery into your total system cost, and save 26% on your battery when you claim the federal ITC (tax credit). There are no such incentives for buying a home generator.

Maintenance

The typical home generator needs to be serviced every 200 hours of runtime, or approximately every two years. This includes regular replacing of generator components such as oil, spark plugs, and air filters. Source The need to manually keep up-to-date on your generator’s maintenance means that if you slip up, you could be left without power during the time when you need it the most, such as in a power outage. Compare this to a solar home battery, which has many fewer moving parts than a generator, and thus needs far less regular maintenance. Not only that, but most solar batteries come with monitoring software to alert you any time there is a problem with your battery so that you can act preemptively. Most generators do not come with such software and are, by extension, less reliable than a home solar battery solution. Solar batteries also do not have to be refueled every so often, unlike generators. A solar battery will provide consistent electricity until it is out of electricity, while a generator will require constant refueling.

Safety & Environmental

A solar + battery backup solution is, naturally, powered by renewable energy and doesn’t require the burning of fossil fuels in order to operate. Generators, by comparison, burn gas or diesel and generate an alarming amount of carbon monoxide. To illustrate just how much harmful CO is produced by these machines and how deadly it can be, the CPSC estimates that 943 people died between 2005-2017 due to non-fire carbon monoxide poisoning associated with the use of generators.Source A solar + battery solution involves no combustion at all, and doesn’t produce any of the harmful CO that home generators do, vastly reducing not only your personal risk, but the amount of harmful chemicals released into the atmosphere as well. In addition, your solar battery will be powered by the sun through the panels on your roof, and requires no trips to the gas station or refilling, like a generator does.

Conclusion: Solar + Batteries – Winner

Not even mentioning the other benefits of a solar battery that can’t be compared directly with a generator (such as the way a solar battery helps with TOU electricity rates), it’s clear from a pricing, maintenance, and environmental point of view that solar + batteries is a much better solution for power outages and blackouts than a home generator is. Solar.com provides an agnostic, unbiased marketplace where homeowners can compare bids from the most qualified local installers in their area. To learn more about solar + batteries as a solution to blackouts and power outages, visit your dashboard and speak with one of our Energy Advisors.

When you see the acronym BYOB, you likely start thinking about backyard barbecues and good vibes. I know I do! But let’s dive into what BYOB means in the context of saving you money instead of spending it.

How does a ‘Bring Your Own Battery’ program work?

Alongside solar batteries’ increase in popularity, utility companies have begun to create incentive programs to make battery storage for your solar system more economical. The programs are very straightforward; all you need to do in order to receive the incentive is to purchase a solar battery either at the time of going solar or afterwards, and then connect your battery to your local utility’s grid.

There are two primary ways to earn money from your battery: 

1. The utility company pays you for your capacity, or the amount of peak or continuous power your battery can output
2. They pay you for the energy that you can push onto the grid, or the amount of electricity you output

Is bringing my own battery worth it?

Energy storage prices have decreased significantly over the last several years, but without the incentive programs, there are still some cases where it doesn’t make financial sense to buy a battery, and homeowners instead are getting a battery for backup power in the event of a grid outage. Through the incentive programs, however, the payback period for a solar battery is designed to be around five years, on par with that of a rooftop solar array.

If you’re curious about bringing your own battery and the incentives available to you, we recommend that you check with your utility to see what’s available. Not all utilities have incentive programs, and not all batteries and battery manufacturers are included in those that do. Feel free to drop us a line if you’d like to connect before reaching out to your utility so that you know what to ask and what to be aware of. We’d be happy to help! Visit our website to get started on your battery project.

What’s in it for the utility companies?

• The motive behind utility companies providing a rebate or incentive for you to bring your own battery is that, in exchange, they can access your solar battery and the energy stored there. With a network of customers’ batteries to rely on, stress on the grid is reduced, and the need for the utility companies to seek out additional nonrenewable energy sources dwindles.
• Another perk for the utility companies is that you’ll demand less from the grid once you have your solar system up and running and a battery to go along with it because you’ll primarily use your own stored solar energy to satisfy your energy needs.

Other Incentives for Solar Batteries

In addition to incentives and rebates from utility companies, there is also a substantial federal solar tax credit, which is called the investment tax credit (ITC). In  2021, it grants you a 26 percent deduction in the cost of your solar energy system, with or without a battery. This deduction comes off of your federal taxes and has no cap. Typical savings are at least a few thousand dollars.
2022 is the last year to claim your 26% solar and battery tax credits. The percentage for this deduction will be dropping to 22 percent in 2023, and from 2024 onward, the residential portion of the Solar Tax Credit will be eliminated entirely. A 10% tax credit will remain for commercial, industrial, and utility scale projects only.