Can I Sell Excess Solar Power to the Grid?
Regardless of whether you have decided to invest in solar equipment to reduce your carbon footprint, save money on electricity or increase the value of your house, your decision now means you are generating additional electricity at no ongoing cost. As described in our last blog post, solar panels will generate different amounts of energy according to their size. If you have purchased a large solar panel and your household does not use all of the electricity produced on a daily basis then you are probably wondering what your options are in regards to the surplus electricity. You may either sell your excess electricity back to the Government via your power supplier or store the additional electricity in a battery for use at night time and on cloudy days. We discuss both of these options in detail below.
Solar Buyback Rates
Solar buyback rates vary depending on the electricity provider. Rates fluctuate from between 2c and 20c p/kWh and can therefore save you between $1,364 and $2,228 per year. This annual sum is calculated according to general usage rates in the AusGrid network: 3,900kWh per year.
Most electricity providers also have minimum and maximum feed-in tariff rates. This means that the rate you will receive for surplus electricity changes according to how much you have sold back to the grid at any particular time of day. Once a maximum value of surplus energy has been sold, the value received by the solar customer (per kiloWatt hour) will reduce.
Solar Batteries are Another Option
If your electricity provider is not offering a fair price on your excess solar energy then you may consider investing in a solar battery used to store surplus solar energy for use later. Solar panels generate the most energy on bright, sunny days and it is therefore a given that on overcast days less energy is produced. Furthermore, it should be common knowledge amongst solar panel owners that, during night hours, the household electricity source is switched back to the grid because there is no sunlight available to produce solar. A solar battery allows households to continue to use solar energy to power their home when natural light is not available.
A solar battery generally costs $1,000-$2,000 per kWh of energy it can store. This means that a 5kWh battery will cost between $5,000 and $10,000 depending on the quality and durability of components. A solar battery’s life cycle is usually 15 years: $333-667 per year for a 5kWh system. Given this cost, it is up to the homeowner to work out whether the electricity savings on cloudy days and at nighttime are worth the expense of a solar battery.
Contact Solar Proofing Sydney Today
Keeping your solar panels clean from dirt, leaves, bird droppings and sticks can produce as much as 5-10% more electricity on a good day. If you have recently installed solar panels at your site and want to safeguard them against detritus, call Solar Proofing Sydney to set up bird-repellent guards on the perimeter of your panels. We also perform solar panel cleaning duties; recommended twice per year. Call us on 0468 433 829 to chat about how we can make sure your solar panels save you as much money as possible.