This is a critical point, as most of the 1.5 million Australian households are now exporting electricity back to the grid for between 6c and 7c/kWh, yet are paying 22-28ckWh for imports from the grid.
Phil Livingston, the founder and CEO of the Brisbane-based Redback, which now employs some 20 people, says smart software can dramatically increase the financial benefits of rooftop solar.
An average house that consumes around 22kWh of electricity a day, and with a 5kW system, might use only 35 per cent of the output, offsetting nearly $800 of costs a year, and getting a “payback” on their solar installation in about seven years.
Using smart inverters, Livingston says, can increase the self consumption to 58 per cent, increasing the cost offers to more than $1,300, and reduce the pay-back time of the installation (including the added cost of the Redback inverter) to 4.5 years.
Livingston says this will improve the payback from solar panels, reduce the consumption of fossil-based fuels, and also mean that if households want to invest in battery storage to control more of their energy use, then they don’t need as big a system as otherwise.
The key to the technology is the cloud-enabled intelligent system for analytics and remote control, which monitors consumption patterns and weather forecasts, and moves the use of appliances such as pool pumps and hot water into the “solar window” so they can be optimised to maximise the consumption of rooftop solar.
“The idea is to maximise the energy you’re producing by using your appliances before you store it in batteries,” Livingston says. Batteries, he notes, are expensive.
Because the software is cloud enabled, it means that it can be constantly upgraded and refreshed – rather like an iPhone or even a Tesla car – and doesn’t have to be replaced.
Livingston says this is important because, for most people and under the most likely tariff structures, battery storage costs will need to fall below $200/kWh before they hit “parity”.
He says Redback’s software is better than rivals’ because, for instance, it incorporates data from the Bureau of Meteorology. He says retailers and utilities are also interested in how the software can deliver benefits to them at significantly lower costs to their current options.
“I think you will see utilities will tailor tariffs to encourage battery storage. It helps a retailer or a network operator significantly and we can provide services to them at a much lower cost to what they can do for themselves, although it is very much an Uber-esque experience for them than what they are used to.”
Half of Redback’s staff are software developers and Livingston expects 80 per cent of future hirings will be software developers too.
“Software can solve the problems we are facing. It will revolutionise the industry, make the equipment faster and smarter, and turn (solar and storage) more quickly into a ubiquitous technology where the fossil fuels are left out,” he said.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on May 6, 2016 1:32 pm
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I actually disagree that 'technology' is required for this. Creating good habits costs less and has just as good results. Get as much of your electricity usage done when the sun is shining, whilst minimising the parallel usage of high-power-draw devices (boil the kettle, then toast the bread, or vice versa, in the morning when the sun's not at full strength). Don't run the dishwasher or washing machine overnight, run it during the day wherever possible.
Technology can help define this sort of thing, but it's not a secret that's been unlocked through innovation.
Other things are impractical, like basing usage on weather. Oftentimes, when you've got to do a load of washing, it can't wait a few days for the clouds to disappear, so there are limits to the usefulness of fine-grained analytics compared to real world practicalities. I'm not going to stop the wash cycle because the skies have just clouded over.
It's good that this information is available, but habits, behaviour and mindfulness are already available for free.
Stationary battery costs are still high, but that will end when supply comes to this market at vehicle prices. LG Chem batteries in the new Chevy Bolt are $145 per kWh at the cell level, and Tesla is at $190 per kWh at the battery level, and both cars will be on the streets in volume by 2018. As other companies are able to equal those costs, more and more batteries can be sold for stationary uses as well, at $200 per kWh or slightly more.
It will be good if Redback includes this scenario in its models, so it can be ready to include batteries in its projects and use its software to maximize the value of the batteries, probably going from 54% to close to 100% utilization.
Have Redback finalised their pricing? I was reading somewhere $9k for the inverter alone - no panels, no battery.
That can't be right if they're talking down batteries as an uneconomical option. Can't be.
Yeah that's what I thought, too. Here is the article I read, for reference:
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/23/half-the-price-in-half-the-time-solar-storage-innovation-harnesses-new-energy-frontier
This quote from the article seems to imply that it has a battery as part of the system, which, depending on the size of the battery, make the $9,000 potentially reasonable:
"Redback also claims to more efficiently exploit its smaller battery by using a cloud-based software platform to control appliances such as “hot water systems, heaters, pool pumps and the like”
Strange that it's so ambiguous about the details of the "Ouija Board" system, no kW spec on the inverter, no kWh spec on the battery, just speculative percentage savings.
I looked on their website for the spec sheet - it doesn't state a capacity, but has the flows (impressive at up to 4600W) and other data:
http://redbacktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/RBT004_data_sheet_Inverter-System-v11.pdf
whtat they really need a Smart Power Diversion Unit, SOLARIMMERSION optimises the efficiency of photo-voltaic and other
microgeneration systems by preferentially diverting the free surplus
power to your hot water cylinder or other resistive devices Eg., Spa
Pool Heating, Under Floor Heater, Swimming Pool Heating, Battery
Storage.
Efficiency & Performance – Use Almost 100% of Free generated power
http://www.solarImmersion.com.au
Until batteries are available at an economic price the use of some device to use the excess solar power is worthwhile. The immersion device has been mentioned in this comments section, and I have some experience with the sun mate, also sold as the Apollo Gem from Apollo solar electric in the uk which is the unit I bought for my daughter. It works well and has saved many kwatts in the month or so of operation. Very well thought out software with an autoboost set temp different to the solar feed temp, even a once a week legionnaires setting at 60C, and a five year warranty. I got the sensor for better temp control and recommend having the normal tank thermostat taken out when getting the installation done, as the tank thermo was switching off too early.