The proportion of home photovoltaic and energy storage

Energy storage has become an increasingly common component of utility-scale solar energy systems in the United States. Much of NREL's analysis for this market segment focuses on the grid impacts of solar-plus-storage systems, though costs and benefits are also frequently considered.

For solar-plus-storage—the pairing of solar photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage technologies—NREL researchers study and quantify the unique economic and grid benefits reaped by distributed and utility-scale systems. Much of NREL's current energy storage research is informing solar-plus-storage analysis.

The average additional energy consumption caused by home energy storage is 338 ± 14 kWh under the 'target zero' operating scenario and 572 ± 19 kWh under the 'minimize power' operating scenario.

There has been growing interest in using energy storage to capture solar energy for later use in the home to reduce reliance on the traditional utility. However, few studies have critically assessed the trade-offs associated with storing solar energy rather than sending it to the utility grid, as is typically done today.

Thus, home energy storage would not automatically reduce emissions or energy consumption unless it directly enables renewable energy. In recent years, there has been growing interest in storing energy produced from rooftop photovoltaic panels in a home battery system to minimize reliance on the electric utility 1.

Just as PV systems can be installed in small-to-medium-sized installations to serve residential and commercial buildings, so too can energy storage systems—often in the form of lithium-ion batteries.