Linking a battery to your solar system allows you to store green energy generated during the day and makes it available to you later when you need it. It is a good substitute for a diesel generator, which uses fossil fuel to generate electricity, are quite loud, and requires yearly maintenance. That said, although important, reducing your carbon footprint is not the only motivation for considering battery storage for your solar system. There are plenty of other reasons, which you can find below.
- Freedom from Outages
Outages happen. Sometimes they are planned and announced for grid maintenance; sometimes, they happen unexpectedly. Whatever the reason behind them, outages have a disruptive impact on our daily lives.
Unless you want to rent out a gas-guzzling generator, assuming you can find one when everyone else is scrambling to do precisely the same thing, having a battery backup can be a godsend.
But you’re probably thinking, “Hey, I can buy a gas generator of my own instead of battery storage now, can’t I?”
Well, you can. Adding battery storage can be a financially smarter decision. Continue reading to find out how.
- Federal Solar Tax Credit (ITC)
The federal government offers a 26% income tax credit on all residential solar installations. If you combine battery storage with your solar system, the incentive covers it. So, you can slash your battery storage price by 26%, depending on your income tax liability. Remember, it’s a tax credit, not a discount.
Keep in mind that the federal tax credit is scheduled to be tapered off shortly. So, grab this opportunity while you still can.
Other Upfront Incentives
Homeowners can avail a few more incentives to help them reduce their initial investment into battery storage:
- Energy Storage Solutions
Connecticut’s Greenbank offers a lucrative incentive for solar buyers to combine battery storage with their solar system. The incentive has two components – an upfront incentive component and a long-term performance-based incentive. We’ll get to the latter soon.
The upfront incentive is a one-time rebate of $200 per kWh of battery storage installed, with a cap of $7,500 on the incentive.
- Tax Exemptions
Solar installations are exempt from both sales and property taxes. When battery storage is combined with your system, it also qualifies for the same benefits.
Performance-based Incentives
There are incentives to help you reduce your initial investment and actually earn cash from the continued use of your battery storage.
- Energy Storage Solutions: PBI
The performance-based incentive component of the energy storage solutions program can be as high as $200 per kW of power released by your battery to the utility company during the summer months. During winter, it drops to $25/kW. Additionally, the incentive decreases over the years.
- Renewable Energy Sources Program
Homeowners get two options as part of this program – a netting tariff and a buy-all arrangement. The former is a variable PBI which is based on the amount of power diverted by your solar system to the grid during peak-demand hours. So, having a battery allows you to store energy during the daytime when solar energy is generated and release it to the utility company when it needs it.
These incentives help you save a tremendous amount of money initially and make a significant amount of money over multiple decades. Can a gas generator do this for you?
