Germany's SMA says device to store solar energy can cut bills

[kristopher]

Germany's SMA says device to store solar energy can cut bills
By Christoph Steitz

MUNICH, Germany, June 21 (Reuters) - SMA Solar, Germany's largest solar company, is launching an battery set that will allow households to store surplus daytime solar energy for use in the evening, cutting energy bills.

German households pay some of the highest prices in Europe for electricity because they pick up much of the cost of subsidising cleaner energy production.

SMA Solar, which is up against fierce Asian competition, says it can help owners of solar panels use more of their self-generated power.

It is Germany's largest solar company and the world's largest maker of solar inverters, a component that helps to feed solar-generated energy into the electricity grid.

The company says its combined inverter battery will give a four-person household up to three hours of extra energy during the evening. The device will go on the market in the second half of this year...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/smasolar-batteries-idUSL5N0EX16C20130621

[NYC_SKP]

1. "* Most solar panels use only 25 pct of power produced"

What do you suppose they mean by this bullet point?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Keep reading

…

Current home solar installations typically use only about 25 percent of the electricity they produce. The rest is sold to the grid at around half the roughly 28 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) which consumers pay for power when the sun is not shining.

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[Iterate]

3. One correction to the Reuters reporter.

Argg. This is another myth that just won't fucking die.

German households pay some of the highest prices in Europe for electricity because they pick up much of the cost of subsidising cleaner energy production.

The German cost of production isn't much different than the rest of Europe. The difference is in non-energy related taxes and charges that are added to it, such as the VAT and retirement fund for federal workers. The retail price is about .26 to .33 Euro/kWh. That amounts to €66 to €80 per household, per month. The amount the reporter is probably referring to is the EEg surcharge, which is about €2 to €6 per household, per month. About 40% of that amount is used for the FiT, and the rest for other projects. Even the courts have ruled that it's a tariff paid by or to the ratepayer and not a government subsidy.

To say that the retail price is high because of a subsidy for "cleaner energy" is grossly misleading, especially to the Anglophone audience.

I gave more detail some time back, but the numbers might be dated:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112719209

As to the device itself, I've lost for the moment the number of residences with rooftop solar currently installed, but a small number of them would have the vented closet, garage, or cellar space available for such a unit. It might make a small market for rural folks with houses, but if you want to look at commercial and manufacturing with large roofs and space inside it might be a good solution for a distributed grid.