Open AccessFinancial Viability of Residential Photovoltaic and Battery Systems in Californias
Author(s) -
Jonas Lehr,
Evangelos Vrettos,
Ram Rajagopal,
Rishee K. Jain,
Martin Everts
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of management and sustainability
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-4733
pISSN - 1925-4725
DOI - 10.5539/jms.v7n4p16
Subject(s) - photovoltaic system , battery (electricity) , electricity , photovoltaics , payback period , benchmark (surveying) , tariff , computer science , environmental economics , computation , finance , automotive engineering , reliability engineering , economics , environmental science , business , electrical engineering , engineering , power (physics) , microeconomics , production (economics) , physics , geodesy , algorithm , quantum mechanics , international trade , geography
Using a battery on a household level has become easier after the launch of Tesla’s Powerwall. Storing electricity during daytime’s PV overproduction or charging the battery during night with an attractive tariff is the most prominent applications. This paper explores the economic impact of the usage of residential battery storage combined with solar photovoltaics (PV) based on real load data from Northern California, USA. A data-driven, deterministic model to benchmark electricity cost savings for single households is presented and the financial viability of such systems is scrutinized for California. Our results indicate that under current capacity and price points, battery systems have limited financial viability and have a payback period exceeding 20 years in most cases. We deepen our analysis and compare the results of our deterministic model to that of a stochastic model to demonstrate that for an hourly time resolution the deterministic model provides an adequate benchmark for estimating cost (within 3%) savings with a short (1/60th) computation time.