TRADITIONAL PHYSICAL BATTERY STORAGE

Battery technology has been revolutionized in recent years, as demonstrated by advances in electric vehicles and solutions for storing surplus solar productivity.

Historically, one of the biggest challenges in solar energy was harnessing productivity during peak hours when electricity consumption was not as high. Globally, approximately 30% of solar productivity was not consumed and thus was wasted.

Traditional 12 and 24-volt lead-acid batteries have been mostly replaced for safety reasons by 48-volt lithium battery technology. The fact that lithium batteries are more compact and practically maintenance-free was an added benefit. The most significant value was the durability of lithium, as the shift to the standard voltage of 220-240 volts only required a multiplication factor of x6 compared to 12 volts x20 or the improved 24 volts x10. Simply put, lithium batteries were more efficient and lasted longer, which, being a very costly component, made the collection and storage of surplus solar productivity more affordable.

Some, for instance, those who are off-grid, must have a backup power source through battery storage or a generator. Others choose to have more control over their energy and invest in physical battery storage to manage power outages or avoid demand charges during non-sunny peak hours. Whatever your reason, ECOCORP SOLAR, S.L. will work with you to design a customized storage solution that maximizes the total benefit of the productivity of your solar energy investment.

THE NEW STORAGE OPTION: VIRTUAL BATTERIES

As mentioned earlier, battery technology has undergone a recent revolution. More recently, in the last 24 months, there has been an evolution.

The days when physical batteries were necessary to collect and store surplus solar productivity are gone. Now there is a virtual option, often called cloud storage.

With the introduction of smart electricity meters, your unused/unconsumed solar productivity can be fed back into the grid. It is not physically stored; the solar energy that is fed back is counted (kWh) and credited to your electric billing account. In simple terms, what you feed back is counted in reverse, instead of what you consume, which is what is counted. So, at the end of each monthly billing cycle, you are billed for the electricity you have consumed and credited for the electricity you have fed back.

It is called a virtual battery or cloud storage because it is a repository (in a way) for the unconsumed solar energy your system is producing and you are not using. However, it is not actually stored; instead, it is aggregated and redistributed through the grid to other consumers.

Fortunately, the feedback and credit accounting process is managed by the computer systems of the electric billing companies. And the switch to a solar feedback rate and contract is part of the comprehensive end-to-end service that ECOCORP SOLAR, S.L. offers.