Energy Storage: Watt You Need To Know

With one of the highest uptakes of solar installations per capita in the world, Australians are becoming increasingly smarter about electricity.

While recent electricity price hikes, lowering of feed-in tariffs, and concerns about electricity supply shortages as we move away from fossil fuel generation have helped drive interest towards home battery energy storage systems, there’s still a lot of work to be done in helping consumers fully understand the advantages of having their own power plant at their home.

RedEarth Energy Storage has taken this to heart, investing into consumer education – starting with its sponsorship of the 2022 season of The Block, Tree Change.

“Obviously, the marketing opportunity with The Block was attractive, but we really saw this as a way to start helping people understand how they can use their solar energy,” said RedEarth’s chief commercial officer Scott Andrews, who appears on the show.

“This year, the teams on The Block were renovating and constructing on 10-acre blocks which weren’t grid connected, so they’re very large, premium homes which are off-grid.

“For people used to having their homes powered by poles and wires, this is a new experience and it’s an important learning curve about how power is generated and consumed, the amount of electricity different appliances use, what size solar array and battery system would best suit the household – all of these things need to be considered.”

Scott said that an important part of this education was understanding the multiple variables when choosing a system. For example:

Location

This is one of the most important things to consider; for example, you can generate more electricity in Far North Queensland with fewer panels that you’d need in Victoria

Battery storage capacity

You need to consider your goal when deciding how much battery storage you need. Batteries save the excess solar power you’re generating during the day so that you can use it at night, when the sun’s gone down, so you need to understand your night-time electricity consumption. Consider also whether you’re looking to save on electricity bills, or if you’re generating enough electricity so that you can store and trade it at wholesale prices to make money from it

Your needs now vs your future needs

Solar systems can be a large investment, so make sure to take into account how your needs may change in the future, and whether your system is scalable. Also consider the value your system adds to your property if you choose to sell it