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Jul 13 2018
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Summer Heat Waves Cause Blackouts in California – Here’s How Batteries and Solar Can Help

By How Do Solar Batteries Work? No Comments

 

In the past week, record-breaking heat waves have hit the majority of the US. In California, the temperature is skyrocketing leaving numerous cities with new records for the highest temperature at this time of the year.

Whatever the reason is for this absurd heat, the outcome is the same – a greater need for the AC, a higher electric bill, and an increased chance of a power outage occurring from the electrical grid getting overloaded.

In fact, there have already been outages across California that have affected over 20,000 electric customers.

For residents with a home battery or solar panel system, power outages are not much of a concern. In this post, we will take a look at how home batteries and solar can help you during these events.

Heat Waves and Power Outages

During a heat wave, there is a natural increase in demand for electricity. This is because everyone is using their AC more than usual to compensate for the hotter temperature. Because utility companies cannot efficiently store massive amounts of energy, to meet a higher demand they must generate more energy at that moment. Sometimes the demand is so high that they cannot meet it, and they will need to force power outages to suppress demand.

It is very important that an energy company keeps its energy generation very close to their energy demand. Otherwise, their systems may overload and cause a more widespread blackout, which may take weeks to fix.

Home Batteries Provide Backup Power During a Blackout

A home battery allows you to store electricity for use at a later time. This electricity can come from your solar panel system or even from the electrical grid itself. A solar panel system is not necessary to benefit from a home battery, but as you will see shortly, it enables you with much more flexibility and freedom in your energy use.

Depending on its capacity, a fully charged home battery by itself may be able to provide your household with enough energy for about a day or two in the case of a power outage. This is dependent on how conservative you are with your energy consumption as well as the capacity of your battery. Most home batteries have a capacity of about 10 kWh, but it is possible to purchase ones with more or less, as well as installing multiple batteries at one residence.

Although a home battery by itself can supply you electricity for a day or so during a blackout, it is not possible to recharge the battery unless it is connected to a renewable energy system like solar.

Solar Panels Themselves Cannot Provide Power During Outages

A solar panel system by itself is great, but it still is not sufficient during a power outage. Without having a home battery connected with your solar panel system, your utility company will cut off your electricity and not allow your panels to feed their energy to your home or back into the grid. This is a safety precaution for the utility crews that may be doing electrical work in your vicinity.

The only way to have energy accessible during a blackout is to have it stored in a home battery. When your home battery is connected with a solar panel system, instead of being limited to just a day or so worth of electricity, you now have no limits on the total amount of energy you can generate and store in your battery for use.

Since you cannot charge your battery with electricity from the grid, the electricity being generated from your solar panels is fed directly into your battery until it is fully charged again. This will occur each day, so even if you are experiencing a week-long power outage, you still will have as much energy available as your panels will generate and batteries will store.

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Preparing for a Heat Wave and a Blackout

One way to ensure that you will have enough energy during a blackout is by keeping your home battery fully charged in times where a blackout may be more likely. In the case of a heat wave, a power outage may be more likely to occur due to an increase in demand.

If you want to make sure that you will always have access to electricity, the most effective way to do this is by installing a solar panel system and home battery so you are unrestricted in your generation and storage abilities. Get started today with one of our experienced energy advisors and see what options are available for you!

Jul 13 2018
Love0

How Solar Panels Absorb and Store Energy

By How Does Solar Power Work on a House? Your Questions Answered No Comments

 

The sun’s energy is expressed in different ways, depending on what materials it interacts with.

Solar panels are built with materials that physically interact with certain wavelengths of solar energy. This enables them to transform solar energy into electricity. Here’s how solar panels absorb and store energy.

What’s in a solar panel?

Traditional solar panels are made with silicon crystals. Silicon is a very special material. It creates an electrical current with sunlight. This is because of the electrons making up a silicon atom.

When sunlight hits your skin, the electrons in the atoms of your body vibrate quickly to generate heat. But electrons do something different in silicon. The electrons start moving around. This means that the sun’s energy is conducted into an electrical current, rather than static heat.

Newer, thin film solar panels function in a similar way. Rather than silicon, they’re made with

  • Cadmium Telluride (CdTe)
  • Amorphous Silicon (a-Si)
  • Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS)
  • Gallium Arsenide (GaAs)

Crystals made from these are smaller and less expensive to produce. Though, they’re not quite as good at producing electricity as silicon. Thin film solar panels are used more for commercial projects, on satellites and spacecraft.

Thin-Film-Solar-Cells

With either the silicon or thin film solar cells absorbing the sun’s light, the electrons do their thing. They’re bumped up to a higher level of energy and get active. Once that higher energy level is reached, it’s up to us to capture and direct the electricity where we can use it.

A series of tiny wires creates a network of electrical current-conducting “mini highways” within a solar panel. These all tie back to a power inverter. Inverters change the raw electric current from DC power to AC power. Your home is wired to conduct AC power, so inverters essentially make the electricity usable.

Do Solar Panels Store Energy?

In short, no they don’t. This has been one of the biggest challenges for solar developers. While it’s great to generate clean electricity, days with less sun and lower production might mean you have to tap into the power grid anyway. But there are options.

Many states offer net metering, which allows you to sell any excess energy you produce on sunny days to the utility company for credit. Then when those rainy days come along (or at night), you can pull power from the grid with those points you racked up.

Solar Batteries to Store Extra Energy

Battery storage is another option for storing solar energy. Companies such as Tesla, LG, and sonnenBatterie are producing batteries that make solar plus storage for homeowners more available. Batteries give the option of more independence from the grid. You can pull energy from your battery at night, rather than switching to utility power when the sun stops shining.

Battery backup also comes in handy in cases of power blackouts. You could run your appliances and electronics using a solar battery for a day or two. That’s generally enough time for your utility to get things up and running again. Of course, your solar panels will kick back in when it’s sunny as well, giving your battery a break.

Learn more about using a solar battery backup during a power outage here. Explore more about how solar might fit your home by punching in your address here.