Bob Blaylock
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #101
Will they also require the batteries to store the electricity? Without those, you're only off grid during daylight hours. You know, when everyone is at work or school...
My guess would be that the vast majority of such systems will be grid-tie systems. With this kind of system, the house is still connected to the utility. If the system is big enough that at some points in the day, it produces more power than the house is using, then excess power is “sold” to the utility; against other times when the house is drawing power from the utility.
I do not think that it will ever be common for a house to have a big enough solar power system to fully meet its needs. To have a fully off-grid system, you need to have a big enough system that during the day, it produces not only enough power to meet the house's needs during that time, but enough excess power to be stored in batteries, and used at night, in times of bad weather, and anywhen else that the system is not producing enough. I don't think this is possible, with current or anticipated technology, without having a “solar farm” that covers considerably more acreage than the house itself.