Views: 81 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2021-07-05 Origin: Site
By 2024, the global residential energy storage market is expected to increase from US$6.3 billion in 2019 to US$17.5 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.88% during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to factors such as falling battery costs, regulatory support and financial incentives, and consumer demand for energy self-sufficiency. Residential energy storage systems provide backup power during power outages, so they play a vital role in the energy industry.
As more and more residential battery subsidy programs are incorporated into state and regional energy policies, Australia is becoming a world leader in energy storage applications. According to the latest forecast from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), Australia's household battery fleet will triple this year. According to relevant reports on the Australian energy storage market, by 2020, the high-growth scenario will enable 450,000 energy storage systems, and the combination of residential and commercial energy storage will provide 3 GWh of distributed storage. This will make the country the hottest residential storage market in the world, accounting for 30% of global demand.
The selection of solar panels, the selection of inverters, as well as connection methods, installation methods, and installation of additional components in the entire solar energy storage system have become difficult one after another. So I hope that after reading this article, you will have a general choice of your solar system.
So in order to respond to the world’s use of clean energy and the Australian government’s support for solar energy storage systems, in this article I comprehensively describe how Australian residents should DIY Own residential energy storage system from three aspects: inverters, solar panels, and energy storage batteries.
First, the installation of solar energy in Australia is divided into three important components, one is solar panels, the second is inverter, and the third is energy storage battery. To put it simply, the former converts light energy into direct current, the latter converts direct current into alternating current, which is sent to home appliances or the grid. The main function of energy storage batteries is to store excess electricity during the day and pass it through at night. The discharge of energy storage batteries maintains the operation of household electrical appliances, so as to achieve the 24-hour recycling of clean energy, and can reduce electricity costs, reduce the pressure on the government's power grid, and turn each family into an independent off-grid solar system.
All the solar energy generated by the solar panel will pass through the inverter, and the equipment also contains important safety shutdown electronic equipment to become anti-islanding protection. Therefore, the choice of inverter is very important, not only for conversion efficiency, but also for safety and functionality.
So what brand to choose has become the first important issue discussed. what? Never heard of an introduction from a solar company? Yes, generally speaking, they will give you a default choice based on your requirements (price). So do not install a 5kw system from a certain supplier of the bureau that is cheaper than others. If you want to believe it, congratulations on your successful fall into the first trap.
1.Fronius
The old European brands are of high quality, and of course the price is very high. Basically there are no shortcomings, and the conversion rate is also good. It can be understood as the BMW in the inverter industry.
2.SMA
German brands, when you hear this, everyone should understand that it represents tough quality and excellent safety. At the same time, the conversion rate is very high. In fact, many of them are made in China, so the truth-seeking made in China can also become top-quality products. Although SMA does not have any fancy functions, it feels at ease when used. It can be said to be a Mercedes-Benz in the automotive industry.
3.Huawei
I am very proud of Huawei's quality. Although Huawei is inferior to Fronius and SMA in the history of inverters, it came from behind and won the world's first inverter shipments title in one fell swoop, accounting for 24% of the global market, surpassing the world's second 10%. proportion! Not only is the quality excellent, but also has a variety of practical and fancy functions, such as support for directly mounting home rechargeable batteries, no additional inverters, AI control, various black technologies, very convenient, cost-saving and easy to expand; mobile phones Remote control of the condition of each solar panel is convenient for quick inspection of problems. You must know that repairs in Australia are very expensive. If you compare it to a car brand, it should be regarded as the Tesla in the inverter.
4.ABB
It comes from a giant company, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., which is a merger of two companies over 100 years old, and is headquartered in Switzerland. More used in Europe. It belongs to mid-range quality. Ford might be more suitable for analogy with a car company.
5.Solaredge
It was established in the United States in 2006 and then headquartered in Israel. High quality, but the price is also high, the sense of science and technology is good, some places are very similar to Huawei. Similar to Lexus in cars.
6.Enphase
American companies focus on MICRO Inverter, so what is the difference between MICRO Inverter and ordinary inverters? Here I will briefly say that the former is for the conversion of each solar panel, and then all the electricity is aggregated for output, and the latter is for the aggregate and then converted output. This depends on personal preference, there is no best. Similar to the mini in the car, there are many likes and dislikes, but based on personal preference, the quality is still excellent!
The above are some recommendations for inverters. Please note that the above brands are all TOP10 in the world (the order does not indicate the ranking). If the equipment recommended by your supplier is not in the above mentioned brands, it does not matter, but please Make sure that the product is found on the official website of the "Australian Clean Energy Association" and that the product complies with AS4777.
Before closing, introduce the topic of inverter types mentioned earlier. This is more technical, I will explain the key points.
The first and most common Strings inverter is to connect all the solar panels in series, and finally to an inverter on the street. The advantage is that it is cheap and easy to implement; and the micro inverter is that each solar panel is installed on a mini inverter. The advantage is that each article is converted independently and does not affect each other, but the disadvantage is that it is a bit expensive, and the conversion rate is currently not comparable to the series inverter. In addition, every micro inverter is installed on the roof. When a malfunction occurs, it needs to be climbed up every time, which is not a small maintenance cost. In addition, the wind, the sun and the rain, have a great impact in the weather like Australia. So for now, the micro inverter is completely unsuitable for Australia's changing weather and arrogant animals.
As the choice of ordinary families, Strings inverters, except for enphase, are all common choices. Comprehensive comparison:
1. High quality, medium to high price
If you don't expect a sense of technology and fashion, but just pursue a stability and peace of mind, then SMA is a good choice and a bit cheaper than Fronius.
2. High quality, extreme sense of science and technology, medium price
If you are pursuing quality and the ultimate pursuit of technology control, then it is recommended to choose Huawei inverter + optimizer + wifi Dongle (optimizer can be installed on each solar panel, can monitor each solar panel, does not undertake the conversion function, but only AI Monitoring) This optimizer allows the installation company to send a few more, but if there are more, you need to spend money to buy it.
3. The quality is reliable and stable, and the price is cheap
If you give priority to price, then Sungrow is undoubtedly the best choice. For inverters of the same quality, the price is almost half of other products. Among the products of the same price, it is absolutely crushed by the quality of the world's TOP10.
As the choice of ordinary families, Strings inverters, except for enphase, are all common choices. Comprehensive comparison:
1. High quality, medium to high price
If you don't expect a sense of technology and fashion, but just pursue a stability and peace of mind, then SMA is a good choice and a bit cheaper than Fronius.
2. High quality, extreme sense of science and technology, medium price
If you are pursuing quality and the ultimate pursuit of technology control, then it is recommended to choose Huawei inverter + optimizer + wifi Dongle (optimizer can be installed on each solar panel, can monitor each solar panel, does not undertake the conversion function, but only AI Monitoring) This optimizer allows the installation company to send a few more, but if there are more, you need to spend money to buy it.
3. The quality is reliable and stable, and the price is cheap
If you give priority to price, then Sungrow is undoubtedly the best choice. For inverters of the same quality, the price is almost half of other products. Among the products of the same price, it is absolutely crushed by the quality of the world's TOP10.
This part is more difficult to introduce, because there are too many brands, the price is only one aspect, and there are many factors to consider.
Before the introduction, please note that the following content is for reference only, and you can choose according to your needs and preferences. As long as you don't buy other brands, the difference is limited in a short time of 5-10 years. No one can say that 10-25 years is not good. You can only compare experimental data or publicity data.
1. Panel material is single crystal or polycrystalline
This will be displayed when the panel is selected. Single crystal is monocrystalline, and polycrystalline is polycrystalline. I am not a professional in this area, so I cannot give absolute professional advice. This part comes from the Internet. At present, or in general speaking, single crystal has a greater advantage in conversion rate than polycrystalline, longer life, but more expensive.
2. The amount of electricity generated by the board, in watts (W)
This can be simply understood as the larger the single board power generation. But different brands of boards have different conversion rates. Therefore, for a 300W board, there will be some differences in the final power generation capacity of different brands. Generally speaking, you can choose a single board with a larger power generation capacity, so that more boards can be installed in the same area.
3. Connection method.
Generally speaking, except for the enphase brand mentioned in the inverter, the others are all solar panels connected in series. The number of series groups supported by different inverters is different. Some only support one group, that is, no matter how many boards are connected in series. Some support multiple groups, such as Huawei and sma support 2 groups, that is, no matter how many boards, they are allowed to be divided into 2 groups and connected in series.
4. Conversion rate,
The difference between this different brand may reach a difference of 15%. -Generally speaking, the current best technical limit is 20%, most of which are between 15%-22%, the higher the better. I have compared the conversion rates of common solar panels at present, please refer to attached Figure 3. As you can see, the top six are all slightly higher than 20%. Of course, there is no need to struggle with 1%, but less than 17% is a bit too low. And the number one LG is not cheap, so everyone has to look at it in balance. The difference between the money saved by as little as 1% and the electricity generation is actually not so obvious.
5. Warranty time.
Generally speaking, the board should be at least 10 years old, of course the longer the better. The top rankings are all more than 20 years old. you get what you pay for. I want to mention here, don't think that China's solar panels are not good. In fact, on the contrary, China's solar panels are often the most cost-effective. Same as inverter. To give a few examples, but it does not mean that I recommend, you can compare the prices yourself (use single board price/single board wattage when comparing prices), such as Trina, phono, risen, jinko, Longi, Canadian Solar, Suntech, Opal, etc. Etc. are all excellent Chinese brands.
6. Guaranteed output efficiency at the 25th year.
As we all know, the more solar panels are used, the lower the power generation efficiency, which gradually decays. A summary will be given at the end.
7. How many watts or solar panels do you need to match your inverter?
Or exactly the other way around. There is a pit to avoid here. That is, if someone says to give you a 5kw system, pay attention to that the board and inverter are matched with 5kw instead of only the inverter 5kw and the board 3kw. Why use "matching" here instead of saying that both solar panels and inverters are 5kw? Many people don't understand it here. Let me talk about the conclusion first, the 5kw inverter is about 6.6kw with the board. Why? Because solar panels actually cannot reach 100% capacity, generally speaking, there is at least 10% loss. In addition, the general inverter allows 33% oversize, that is, 5kw*133%=6.65kw. In order to achieve the maximum conversion volume, the current independent house roof 5kw inverter with a 6.6kw board is more appropriate.
8. As we know 1 kW of solar panel has 3 PV panels each of 330 Wp, hence each solar panel generates 1.33 KWH of electricity in a day and 40 KWH of electricity in a month.
Summary
There is no specific recommendation here because there are too many brands and models. On the whole, the prices of boards from the United States, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea are generally higher, but the conversion rate, warranty time, and attenuation at 25 years are better. The general warranty of Chinese solar panels is about 12 years, and the conversion rate is also good. The 25-year attenuation is about 6% from the top level, but the price is much cheaper. You can refer to it yourself.
Like inverters, there are many brands of home energy storage batteries. However, generally everyone will choose the matching energy storage battery according to the inverter. Therefore, I will also choose a few of the most common batteries based on the inverter brands introduced earlier. Finally, I will introduce the inverter + battery combination.
For convenience, I will first record some dot points for everyone to choose and compare. After that, I will gradually improve the specific information and instructions when I have time.
1. Tesla Power wall, the price is $$$, if you have special feelings for Tesla, you can choose. Otherwise, it is recommended to choose other brands with higher cost performance. In addition, Tesla uses AC charging, that is, the battery is connected to the back of the meter. Compared with the latter two DC charging, one more conversion. As we all know, solar power is direct current, which is transformed into alternating current through an inverter and sent to the grid. Hybrid inverter means that one side can be converted into AC power and sent back to the grid, and the other side can reserve DC power and send it to the battery for energy storage. Tesla does not support this.
2. LG Chem, one of the best batteries, the price is $$, the cost performance is good, and the compatibility is very good. Basically, she can support most of the hybrid inverters seen on the market. LG batteries have an old AC version (which was also updated later) and a relatively new DC version. In addition, it can also support similar two parallel expansion. If you don't know what to choose, just choose this one. The warranty is 10 years or 27400kWh earlier. For families, 10 years is probably the earlier one. Support SMA, SolarEdge, Fronius, Huawei and other hybrid inverters. If you choose sungrow's inverter, sungrow also has its own brand of battery options.
3. Huawei Luna2000 series batteries are the only choice for Huawei inverters (the other is the LG Chem series mentioned above). The quality of Huawei's products is recognized by the world, and has also won unanimous praise overseas. The battery inherits this style, and also supports stack expansion + parallel expansion, etc. One unit is 5kWh, 3 stacks together is 15kWh, and one group is connected in parallel to support a maximum of 30kWh. It is very flexible and convenient to upgrade later, and does not require a large investment. Huawei batteries are also DC rechargeable batteries. Seamless combination with your own inverter. All Huawei inverters are Hybrid. You don't need to spend money to choose different versions. Just pay attention to the L1 series for single-phase electricity and M1 series for three-phase electricity.
4. BSLBATT energy storage battery series, the price is $. Although BSLBATT is a new force in the energy storage market, it has many years of experience in the field of lithium batteries. Before 2019, BSLBATT focused on lithium batteries for electric vehicles and in the field of lithium batteries for forklifts. There are already very good achievements, so their batteries are very trustworthy. BSLBATT has many energy storage battery series, and the lowest capacity is 2.5Kwh and the highest capacity is 20Kwh, which can meet a variety of use cases and families, and most hybrid inverters for insomnia can support it. BSLBATT currently sells the most wall-mounted 48V 200Ah deep-cycle home energy storage batteries, and now it has launched a stackable 48V 100Ah battery and a combination of a 5Kw inverter and a 7.5Kwh battery. The system and the innovation of their products are all to meet the customer's usage scenarios. As a manufacturer of energy storage batteries, as a factory, they minimize the cost of energy storage systems and are a good choice for alternatives to tesla powerwall.
The above is all about the selection of solar panels, inverters and energy storage batteries, hoping to help residents in Australia have a general direction for their solar energy storage system. Choose the solar system that suits you from the aspects of price, technology and product!
