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Can you use Home Battery Storage without solar panels?

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Even if you don’t have a solar power system, you may still be able to increase your energy independence — and protect yourself during power outages — with battery storage.

We will explain how that’s possible, looking at the benefits and disadvantages of having a battery without solar panels, and outline how you can add a solar array later.

Does a battery work without solar panels?

A battery can absolutely work without solar panels. You can use a storage battery to store electricity from the grid.

You can use power from the grid when it’s cost-effective but then switch to battery power during times of peak demand when electricity costs more. Over time, this can help reduce energy costs and keep utility expenses as low as possible.

 

What are the benefits of a lone battery?

  • You can avoid the higher costs of electricity during peak times — by charging your storage battery when demand is lower, you can use this electricity in the evening and avoid paying peak demand prices.
  • Reduces strain on the grid — using stored electricity during peak demand not only saves you money but also puts less pressure on the grid, which means fewer power outages for everyone.
  • Increases energy independence — not all homes can have solar panels, but you can still get a storage battery to give you more control over the energy you use.

 

Can you add solar panels to your battery later on?

Yes, you can add solar panels to an existing battery system. It isn’t even that difficult — it’s just a matter of hooking up your new solar panels to the battery.

We recommend using a professional to install and connect your solar panels to your battery system, because of the risk of damage to yourself or the products.

 

France electricity prices surge past €1,000/MWh

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Wholesale electricity prices in France for the middle of winter surged above €1,000/MWh ($A1,540/MWh) after the operator of the world’s biggest nuclear fleet revealed more problems and more outages at its reactors.

Half of France’s 56 reactors are out of action due to scheduled or emergency maintenance measures. “The situation changed drastically this year when France swung from being one of Europe’s largest exporters of electricity to a net importer because of issues with its reactors.”–  Bloomberg

 

Energy Storage

Natural gas prices have been steadily climbing since last summer, with the war in Ukraine increasing the pressure. Combined with efforts against climate change, it’s never been clearer that the world needs to move towards renewables.

However, there’s an obvious problem – most forms of renewables don’t produce energy on demand. The power needs to keep flowing even when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

The words ‘power storage’ might make you think of batteries.

 

Solar Plus Battery System

The sun shines when energy demand is lowest, which means your home can’t take full advantage of the benefits of rooftop solar without a way to store the excess power you generate. Complementing your solar system with a home battery gives you a way to harvest the excess clean power you produce daily for use when the sun goes down and when you actually need it.

Brand New ZRGP | Factory Introduction

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New Factory Introduce

ZRGP’s new factory has now been constructed and all the equipment is ready and waiting to start manufacturing. The factory is located in Huizhou and the maximum

surface area is exceeding 10,000 square meters, representing 172,220 square feet. We possess more than 150 experienced employees and many excellent technicians in charge of support and push on manufacturing, ensuring each process is going well.

 

New System

Despite the scale of the factory, we introduced a whole set of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in order to realize warehouse information visualization and data transparency. In other words, the MES system is an intelligent supervisor who is responsible for recording and processing statistics. More importantly, MES could largely assist employees to manage stocks such as material first-in, first-out, and preventing any unnecessary errors.

 

New Production Line

Moreover, the new factory is equipped with two semi-automatic and two fully automatic production lines. In terms of employees, wages paid could be lessened and more capital could be invested in equipment updating.

In terms of output, diversified production lines can provide stable and sufficient output production, which largely boosts the output capability. It is estimated that the output value of the factory per annual  would be exceeding 3 Gwh.

Introducing ZRGP PowerBase X1 – Wall Mounted Home Battery System

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PowerBase X1 provides an ultra-thin wall hanging and flexible solution to limited installation space, and restricted load-bearing customers.

The battery is a lithium iron phosphate battery system, which can be used to provide safe, reliable, and stable energy for various equipment. And it can be widely used in household energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage, and other fields.

The flexibility of ZRGP PowerBase X1 can power homes for longer periods, granting access to a greater amount of on-site, clean energy available day and night. Multiple batteries are allowed to be connected in parallel to expand capacity and power to meet the requirements of longer power supporting duration and higher power consumption.

PowerBase X1 features ZRGP’s industry-leading warranty of 8000 times cycle life/10 years as well as compatibility with 16 world-famous inverter brands. The built-in battery management system manages and monitors battery voltage, current, temperature, and other information. In addition, the BMS can help extend cycle life by balancing the battery during charging and discharging.

 

By communicating with the battery management system, PowerBase X1 with Smart Cloud monitoring and control system enables users to customize system behavior or implement remote firmware updates for easy day-to-day use and maintenance. And equipped with a monitoring LED display, can provide essential data visualization, more convenient for users to observe the operation of the system.

To learn more about PowerBase X1, visit https://zruipower.com/products-item/power-base-x1/

AC vs. DC Coupling: Which is Best for Your Application

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​Energy storage has grown increasingly popular in recent years, and with good reason. Batteries represent the next step toward grid independence, effectively expanding the capabilities of your solar panels around the clock by allowing you to store and use your excess solar energy, both day and night.

A hotly debated topic among solar installers today is whether AC or DC coupling is the best approach for solar+storage installations and retrofits. The truth is there really is no right or wrong answer. Both approaches have their merits, and the optimal approach depends entirely upon the application.

 

AC-coupled vs. DC-coupled – What’s the Difference?

AC or DC coupling refers to the way in which solar panels are coupled with and interact with a battery system.

AC coupled systems require two inverters: a common grid-tied solar inverter and a battery-based inverter. This means that the energy used by the batteries may be inverted as many as three times before being used in the home — i.e., from DC (PV array) to AC (load center) through the solar inverter, then back to DC (batteries) through the battery-based inverter, and then back to AC again (home loads).

DC coupled systems use a charge controller to directly charge batteries with solar generation and a battery-based inverter to power home loads (AC).

As a result, DC coupled systems are slightly more efficient than AC coupled systems because the power is not inverted multiple times.

 

AC Coupled: Best for Those Who Already Have Solar

AC coupled systems can be much more convenient for retrofits in which customers want to add batteries to existing residential grid-tied solar systems. One only needs to purchase an additional battery-based inverter to connect the batteries.

Because of the ease of installation, AC coupling can be ideal for grid-tied residential battery backup systems as well as large commercial systems, especially for retrofits where solar panels have already been installed.

While AC coupled systems may be easier to install, using battery storage to cover AC loads is likely to result in a marginal decrease in efficiency.

 

DC Coupled: Best for Those Installing Solar and Storage Together

DC coupling is ideal for new on- and off-grid solar+storage system installations in residential and small commercial applications, but not retrofits with existing solar panels, because the existing grid-tied solar inverter must be removed entirely and replaced with a battery-based inverter. In most cases, the existing PV array wiring must be reconfigured.

The ZRGP PowerBase Mate (minimum capacity 10.24 kWh, expandable to 40.96 kWh) is a great choice for DC-coupled systems. It is a low-voltage battery system with an acquired flexible modular design with no extra cables, which provides optimized safety, life span, and performance. They are perfect batteries for all applications.

The PowerBase Mate has the flexibility to be combined with any type of energy generator, including photovoltaic, bioenergy, wind, and diesel generators. This makes it a more viable option for achieving energy independence.

Will solar energy stop working if the sun is still shining?

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A common misconception about solar system is that during a power outage or grid failure, the solar system will continue to provide power to loads. After all, if the sun is shining, shouldn’t the system still work?

In fact, due to the nature of grid-tie solar systems and how they are designed, all power output to the grid must cease during an outage. There are, however, two exceptions to this: your system is equipped with energy storage, or you forgo the benefits of grid-tied solar and opt for an off-grid system.

 

Grid-Tied Solar System without Energy Storage
Residential solar without storage is designed to shut down during a power outage as most customers have grid-tied systems in their homes.In most of the world, all inverters that back-feed the grid must conform to “anti-islanding” requirements. Anti-islanding simply means that the inverter stops grid-feed-in when the grid experiences abnormal conditions (frequency/voltage) and/or in the event there is a complete power outage. The purpose of this is to protect line workers or electricians who may be trying to make repairs to the grid. This is mandated for all grid-tie systems. 

 

Grid-Tied Solar System with Energy Storage

If you want to guarantee that your solar system will continue to operate during a blackout, adding a battery storage system is the way to go. These storage units save energy produced from solar panels for later use. When there is a power outage, the combined solar plus storage unit isolates itself from the grid and immediately continues power supply to the home—providing the uninterrupted electricity service you need during times of crisis.

The battery-based system can fool the grid-tied system into thinking the grid is still functional, while also disconnecting from the grid to comply with anti-islanding. This still allows for solar productivity to feed loads and charge batteries during a grid-down situation.

 

Energy storage System
ZRGP PowerBase Mate Battery System plus solar system is unique.(1) Three-layer BMS, based on ZRGP APP to intelligently monitor and manage the battery and home energy usage.(2) Passing the UL 9540A test at the cell, module, and system level means that Mate has reached the highest international standard level in terms of safety and reliability.(3) Modular design (minimum capacity 10.24 kWh, expandable to 40.96 kWh).(4) The PowerBase Mate has the flexibility to be combined with any type of energy generator, including photovoltaic, bioenergy, wind, and diesel generators. This makes it a more viable option for achieving energy independence. 

If you are enjoying the benefits of a residential solar system, but want to take it a step further with off-grid capabilities and uninterrupted power during power outages, then solar plus storage is the way forward.