Solar Installers & The Decade of Storage #EmpowerSummit22

Thank you to Aurora Solar for hosting their excellent #empowersummit22. It was a pleasure to be invited and really get into the incredible rise of home battery storage. Thanks also to those in the audience who initially thought I was Edward Norton… ! Great to have people like #EdNorton put their massive following to great effect in the energy transition.

So, what did we cover??

We all agreed we would see continued massive growth in the residential storage market heading into 2023. The key drivers will be: great economics, product range, regulation and software. Without a doubt this is “The Energy Storage Decade” .?

Economics - there has never been a better time to add batteries to home solar projects.?

Battery prices have been steadily dropping. Despite a small increase in prices against the run of play due to supply chain and pandemic headwinds, this will ease through 2023. Meanwhile, energy prices have risen everywhere. When you mix rising electricity prices with even slight changes to net metering rates, it adds weight to the “solar plus battery” proposition. As an installer, you are going to hear more of your customers asking for storage - they will be better off financially and your ticket size will increase.

Products - there is more battery choice on the market than ever before.?

The recent RE+ event demoed scores of new products. Solar installers have an increasingly confusing landscape to navigate and explain to their customers. Should you go with an established brand or try something new??

We are seeing a split in the market between purpose designed all-in-one systems which have been built from the ground up versus companies which pull different components from different manufacturers. Purpose designed systems have clear benefits of the components working perfectly with each other, reducing installation and operating costs. We are seeing increasing modularity which allows installers to fit the right size of battery for their customer needs. As an installer, smart procurement is critical for your customer happiness, ease of install, and minimising support costs.

We get it -? installers have a lot of information to juggle! At Lunar Energy we are focussed on making this journey easy for you.

Regulations - IRA and other incentives will undoubtedly drive battery growth through 2023.?

IRA is well publicised, but we heard less about net metering reform for obvious reasons - it can be a painful subject matter for installers. Received wisdom suggests NEM3 in California will happen in some form at some time. Forecasts show a 10% drop in solar installs if NEM3 passes, but we predict a significant corresponding increase in batteries added to solar projects. Attachment rates will rise from 15-20% today to over 40%. This makes sense - if homeowners are paid less for exporting their solar, best to try to store and use as much as they can themselves. For installers, this means fewer solar customers but a massive increase in battery sales. We hope the increased battery revenue softens the blow for the solar industry.?

Software - batteries which work with smart software like Lunar Gridshare will give installers the edge.?

Software differentiation will be the new battleground for residential batteries. Software can “optimise” batteries to minimise customer electricity bills - the growth of time based rates massively benefit customers with batteries. Software can also turn the battery into a revenue generator - trading energy with the grid. Thousands of customers in CA received payments for sharing their battery energy with the grid during summer heat waves this year. Installers who add this benefit to their customer offerings will get the edge.?

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want to learn more. Let's accelerate this transition together.

Ed

Lunar Energy #batterystorage #solarpower #solarinstallers