- Energy companies are becoming concerned about excess solar power in grid
- Residential solar panels feed extra electricity into grid which can overload it
- Electricty experts say residential battery packs are needed to stop blackouts
A solar panel boom is resulting in too much electricity being pumped back into the grid raising fears it could cause overload and massive blackouts.
Energy Networks Australia head Andrew Dillon warned ‘solar spill’ was becoming an increasing problem as solar panels become mainstream according to The Canberra Times.
The issue occurs when panels soak up energy from the sun and pump excess power back into the grid when demand is low, such as the middle of the day.
The boom in panels has been likened to the ‘equivalent of a new power plant being built every season’ .
Solar rooftop panels are becoming so mainstream that electricity networks are concerned too much energy is being pushed back into the grid with the potential to cause blackouts
‘Either we get voltage and frequency issues at the local level or even localised blackouts and things tripping off,’ Mr Dillon warned.
He said to fix the issue one of two things would need to happen, either the excess solar energy would need to be stopped from coming into the grid or the networks would have spend a fortune increasing the facilities to deal with it.
The best solution to soak up the excess energy and stop it from coming into the grid is by installing battery packs.
The best solution to soak up the excess energy and stop it from coming into the grid is by installing residential battery packs
‘We have to soak up the energy somehow, battery storage is an efficient way of doing this; we can get energy recoveries of around 90 per cent,’ energy service company Greensync’s chief executive Phil Blythe said.
Much like a mobile phone stores charge from your wall outlet, these house-sized battery packs store the solar energy and then release it in a controlled way, either for use in the house or back into the grid during times of heavy use.
The largest lithium-ion battery farm in the world was recently constructed in South Australia by Californian company Tesla to soak up excess energy from the Hornsdale Wind Farm north of Adelaide.
The boom in solar panels has been likened to the ‘equivalent of a new power plant being built every season’
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