Australia: Household battery storage to be economically attractive by 2020

RenewEconomy
The report, released on Monday by the Alternative Technology Association, says Sydney and Adelaide could be the first cities to arrive at this point – as early as 2018.
But it is also careful to stress that the value of adding solar with storage will vary from household to household, and state to state, depending on a number of key metrics, including the household’s size, its location, its consumption patterns and the kind of tariff it is on.
“At today’s prices, most Australian households won’t be able to achieve a 10-year return on their investment – which is the typical lifetime of a well-designed and operated battery system,” said ATA policy and research manager Damian Moyse. “But by 2020, this will change for an increasing number of homes.”
To try to work out which homes, exactly, the ATA tested the value of adding batteries to a new grid-connected solar system across a range of different scenarios.
Using the ATA’s Sunulator solar-with-battery economic feasibility tool – a new technology to be launched on Tuesday in Melbourne – the study included 10 different locations, electricity consumption data for typical working couples and young families, three different grid tariff types and different sized solar systems.
The results revealed that in nine scenarios across six locations a 4kWh battery improved the net present value (NPV) for the “Young Family.” As you can see below, households from only two locations – Sydney and Adelaide– achieved this with investment in 2018. The remainder involved investment in 2020.
Source: RenewEconomy. Reproduced with permission.