Save money & beat loadshedding
Battery-Tied Solar PV
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What is a Battery tied Solar PV System?
When the grid is off, you stay on
If you are looking for energy security during load shedding, plus savings on your electric bill for your residential home, office, company or commercial building then a battery-tied system with a hybrid inverter may be the solution you need.
THIS SYSTEM ALSO PROVIDES SAVINGS ON ELECTRICITY
With this system, your electric bill will come down substantially, thanks to the solar PV panels – the only drawback of this system is the initial cost; batteries and the necessary hybrid inverter can be pricey. If budget is a challenge, starting with a battery backup solution that is modular and fully expandable to solar PV in the future may be the smart way to go. Alternatively, if savings on your bill are most important to you, you can opt for a more cost effective grid-tied solar system.
Why choose a Battery Tied Solution
Main Benefits of Battery Tied Systems
- Higher independence from future increasing electrical tariffs and monthly savings on electricity.
- Energy security during loadshedding.
- Decrease your building’s carbon footprint by becoming a renewable energy user.
- This system is modular and allows installation in phases.
Any questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
The percentage of your energy needs that the solar PV system will produce is dependent on the space and orientation of your roof and the local municipality’s generation limits for your property.
For a company, the business case for installing a solar system is good, having a low payback period (usually under 6 years) together with the falling costs of solar system equipment, rising electrical tariffs and tax incentives of a 100% tax-deductible depreciation allowance in the first year of installation. Your office, factory or commercial building will benefit from the savings and energy security that renewable solar power brings.
When the power goes off during load shedding, the hybrid inverter will continue to power some chosen “essential” loads from solar power (during the day) and batteries. Not all loads in the building will remain on. Adding more batteries and choosing a larger hybrid inverter will mean that more loads can run when the grid turns off – but this will increase the cost of the system.
Yes, thanks to the use of a hybrid inverter with batteries, your photovoltaic panels will continue to produce power during load shedding but will only feed the “essential” loads that are on the output of the hybrid inverter.
This depends on your municipality, as some do not have the capability for you to sell excess solar energy back to the grid. For the highest savings, we recommend maximising your personal use of the available solar power instead of prioritising exporting to the grid. In our experience as solar PV installers, we have not come across any municipality that will buy exported solar power at the same rate for which they sell their own power, it is usually less, resulting in lower savings if you export than if you used the solar power yourself.
To maximize your self-consumption, we recommend adding some battery capacity to your system, so that excess solar power gets stored in the batteries during the day and you can use this stored energy from the batteries in the evening and at night.
This doesn’t mean that it is a bad idea to have the option of exporting to the grid. In cases where your batteries are full and there is excess solar power, exporting to the grid would be the next best option to fully utilize the potential of your solar photovoltaic system. To export to the grid you will need a special meter installed by the local municipality. In Cape Town, a commercial business or company can apply for the city to install this meter free of charge.
Yes, generator integration is possible with this system, as many hybrid inverters have unique inputs for a generator, and others have built-in software that makes generator integration possible.
Their final presentation to the Pinewood stakeholders was of an exceptionally high standard. Their workmanship, supervision of workers and the administration are of equally high standards. I will definitely recommend them to any prospective client.
Get in touch
Is this the right solution for you?
Whether you’ve made a final decision or not, please feel free to contact us for further information, advice or to arrange a consultation.
Case Studies
AWPower Past Projects
Cape of Good Hope SPCA, the founding society of the SPCA movement in South Africa and the oldest animal welfare organisation in the country, has chosen AWPower to implement a grid-tied solar solution, with additional modular battery backup systems to support essential loads.
In March 2016, AWPower engineers designed and installed an off-grid solar PV system in its sustainability project house in Glencairn, Simon’s Town. The plan was to follow a modular approach by expanding the system to a full off-grid solar PV system that would use the grid as a backup during typical Cape Town winter rainy days. Main considerations …
AWPower, an energy solutions provider servicing customers in Western Cape and Gauteng, recently upgraded the lead-acid batteries from an existing solar PV system installed during 2016, to 30kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) manufactured by Revov.
