Midnight Sun Battery Storage

[wersolaruk]

Has anybody heard anything about there products?

 

[maxthwell]

No. Does anyone else know this? If someone knows this please let us know.

 

[trev]

I saw an ad in our local paper which claimed the addition of this think would allow your panels to continue generating at night.

 

[SpitfireW'sale]

There was another thread about this a while ago - look on the "similar threads" below
http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...m/67074-midnight-sun-anyone-seens-before.html

 

[wersolaruk]

There is a company out there installing it but want know if anybody stocks it

 

[Worcester]

Snakeoil
"The battery that can store more power (sic - energy) in £ terms over it's lifetime than it's own cost has yet to be invented"

 

[Berneray]

The components are manufactured in Italy and pre assembled in the U.K. The company with the U.K. dealership is AWE Energy in Sheffield. We went to see them and had a look at the product......but for us the figures don't work. They are selling for around the £6500 mark. Capable of storing up to 5 kwp.

As a retrofit even if they allow you to use 100% of what your system produces then the saving cannot be more than say 70% of your bill as you will be using at least 30% anyway.

So say its saves you £300 per year....then the payback time must be over 12 years. Plus you'd need to factor in a replacing the batteries....

Expensive for what you get...For us its a case of lets wait and see....

 

[Gavin A]

Snakeoil
"The battery that can store more power (sic - energy) in £ terms over it's lifetime than it's own cost has yet to be invented"

does that actually still hold true bearing in mind electricity costs have doubled in the last 7 years and will likely double again in the next?

Have battery costs also risen, thought they'd been falling, so I'd think we must be somewhere around the point where this statement is no longer true. Could well be wrong mind, I've not run the figures.

 

[Berneray]

Storage systems are inevitable. They are the natural next stage......but its a question of what type and cost.....

Imagine how different wind farms will be when the power can be stored until its needed.....same with solar...

Here's a good read of whats happening globally....

How should the UK support the uptake of domestic solar PV storage? | Solar Power Portal

 

[Worcester]

@Beneray 5kWp is POWER how much ENERGY (kWh) can be stored and how much can it discharge and how many cycles - that's the economics

Assuming 100% efficiency
£6500 buys you at WORST case 54,167 kWh.
The AVERAGE house uses 3,638 kWh (according to the EST)
lets say they have a 4kWp system generating 3600kWh
And mange to use 40% of that annually (that's generous) that leaves an import bill of 2,160 kWh - it would take you 25 years to consume 54,167 kwh!
Lets be pessimistic and say they only use 10% so import 3240 kWh per year, that is still 16.7 years (and that assumes no battery replacements...

Sorry doesn't add up.

 

[Gavin A]

oh, sure it doesn't stack up at £6500, no arguement there.

But I'm pretty sure that something more cost effective will come along - I've seen kit a lot better priced than that already, though still not quite convinced by it... and then offer it to high energy users, not average energy users, and I reckon the figures will stack up at some point in the near future.

but I'd agree, not at £6.5k or anything like it for domestic, it needs to be done a lot more cleverly than that to find a price point that works.

For my money, it's going to be a relatively small system that trickle feeds a few hundred watts back in through the evening and night to cover base load that hits that economic point first - it should have the advantage of maximising battery life by limiting the draw off rate, and not dropping too far down the charge on the battery.

But we'll see I guess....

 

[Worcester]

@GavinA, I agree with you, something is inevitable, especially seeing as the EST promote it (along with diverters to Immersions)!

Getting the most out of your solar PV or wind turbine system / Solar panels (PV) / Choosing a renewable technology / Generating energy / Home (England) - Energy Saving Trust England

The price has to come down dramatically though and either gel batteries or hydrogen producution may help that. (Did you see the program on mars exploration on Sunday - they're planning to manufacture their return rocket fuel from the water already on mars)

Here's the latest graph from EST that shows typical household load curves: