McKenna Domestic PV Battery Study 2012 11 06.pdf (887.18 kB)
Economic and environmental impact of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected domestic PV systems
journal contribution
posted on 2013-01-11, 14:14 authored by Eoghan McKenna, Marcelle McManus, Sam Cooper, Murray ThomsonMurray ThomsonOccupants of dwellings with grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems can often benefit financially from
exporting electricity to the grid. When export prices are lower than import prices, however, occupants are
incentivised to time-shift demand in order to avoid exports and reduce imports. To maximise this potential
financial benefit, the addition of batteries to the PV system has been proposed to take advantage of
the specific commercial opportunity presented to the occupant of trading exported power during the day
for imported power during the evening. This paper therefore assesses the economic and environmental
impact of the use of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected PV systems under current feed-in tariff arrangements
in the UK. The development of a lead-acid battery model is described, which is used to simulate
hypothetical power flows using measured data on domestic PV systems in the UK. The simulation results
indicate that the net benefit of the battery is negative, even when considering an idealised lossless
battery. When realistic energy losses and lifetimes are accounted for, the financial loss for the systems
considered here can approach £1000/year. The environmental impact of the use and production of the
lead-acid battery is also described, and also found to be negative, further strengthening the argument
against the use of lead-acid batteries in domestic grid-connected PV systems.
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Research Unit
- Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST)
Citation
MCKENNA, E., ... et al., 2013. Economic and environmental impact of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected domestic PV systems. Applied Energy, 104, pp. 239 - 249.Publisher
© Elsevier Ltd.Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2013Notes
This article was published in the journal, Applied Energy [© Elsevier Ltd.] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.11.016ISSN
0306-2619Publisher version
Language
- en