asia global energy reviews battery stored solar power sparks backlash from utilities

Asia Global Energy Reviews

Battery-Stored Solar Power Sparks Backlash From Utilities

Asia Global Energy Reviews Battery-Stored Solar Power Sparks Backlash From Utilities

California’s three biggest utilities are sparring with their own customers about systems that store energy from the sun, opening another front in the battle that’s redefining the mission of electricity generators.


Edison International (EIX), PG&E Corp. and Sempra Energy (SRE) said they’re putting up hurdles to some battery backups wired to solar panels because they can’t be certain the power flowing back to the grid from the units is actually clean energy.


The dispute threatens the state’s $2 billion rooftop solar industry and indicates the depth of utilities’ concerns about consumers producing their own power. People with rooftop panels are already buying less electricity, and adding batteries takes them closer to the day they won’t need to buy from the local grid at all, said Ben Peters, a government affairs analyst at Mainstream Energy Corp., which installs solar systems.


“The utilities clearly see rooftop solar as the next threat,” Peters said from his office in Sunnyvale, California. “They’re trying to limit the growth.”


California is the largest of the 43 states encouraging renewables by requiring utilities to buy electricity from consumer solar installations, typically at the same price that customers pay for power from the grid.


The policy, known as net metering, offers a way for households to reduce their bills. It underpinned a 78 percent surge in the state’s residential installations in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Battery Costs


Solar systems with batteries attached have gained a foothold in the market as costs fall, allowing customers more flexibility for using their own power at night or when local supplies fail. The systems average about $12,000 to $16,000, adding about 25 percent to the cost of rooftop power plants, according to Outback Power Inc., a battery maker based in Arlington, Washington.


Matthew Sperling, a Santa Barbara, California, resident, installed eight panels and eight batteries at his home in April.


“We wanted to have an alternative in case of a blackout to keep the refrigerator running,” he said in an interview. Southern California Edison rejected his application to link the system to the grid even though city inspectors said “it was one of the nicest they’d ever seen,” he said.


“We’ve installed a $30,000 system and we can’t use it,” Sperling said. Utilities say the battery systems open the possibility of fraud. Consumers in theory can fill the batteries with power from the grid and then send it back designated as renewable energy under the net metering program. Solar suppliers say that’s not happening.


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asia global energy reviews battery stored solar power sparks backlash from utilities

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