Residential Solar+Storage: Weighing the Benefits of Bill Savings vs. Backup Power

The threat of power outages has led a growing number of households to include battery storage when installing solar. When paired together, solar and battery storage can deliver reliable, clean energy to keep the lights on and power critical household devices for hours or even days during extended grid outages, but despite falling costs, battery systems are still an expensive investment.

So, how can households balance the economic benefits of using their battery to lower energy bills and the resilience benefits of reserving a portion of their battery’s stored energy for backup power?

A new study and report from Berkeley Lab, “Bill Savings vs. Backup Power: Evaluating operational tradeoffs for home solar+storage systems,” explores this question. The study found that, in most cases, the economic value of using a battery to lower costs tends to outweigh the resilience value gained by reserving more of the battery capacity for outages.

In this webinar, Galen Barbose from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Energy Markets and Policy Department (Berkeley Lab EMP) reviewed findings from the study, discussed the tradeoffs between bill savings and backup power, and answered questions from attendees. Sunhee Baik and Cesca Miller of Berkeley Lab EMP joined for the Q&A portion of the webinar.