Anyone heard about Midnight Sun solar capture?

Marksfish

We had 3kw worth of panels installed earlier this year. We seem to be generating a lot of extra electricity, I thought I would need more for my aquarium, but may have been mistaken. We have been wondering about how we could maybe store the excess instead of exporting to the grid, for later use.

This week, a letter from our installers has been received about the Midnight Sun solar capture system. Basically a big gel battery system from what I can gather. Does anyone have any experience of this system at all as prices are not quoted anywhere that I can see on the net? I did see one forum mention that the cost may well be equivalent to the cost of the panels themselves, which would possibly make them not so attractive.

Thanks

Martyn1981

Evening.

Storing excess PV has really exploded recently (poor choice of words?). This is something that you might want to keep an eye on, but not expect too much for a few years as it's only just starting to gather speed.

I find it fascinating (but I'm odd!) here are a couple of articles on PV storage in general:

PV Storage Market Set to Explode to $19 Billion in 2017

http://www.solardaily.com/reports/PV_Storage_Market_Set_to_Explode_to_19_Billion_in_2017_999.html

Report: PV storage set to take off in UK from 2014

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/report_pv_storage_set_to_take_off_in_uk_from_2014


Here are some examples of the kit:

http://powerrouter.com/products/powerrouter-solar-inverter

http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/02/japan-combines-solar-storage-to-beat-blackouts/2/

http://www.sma.de/en/products/battery-inverters/sunny-island-60h.html#Overview-83257

[Edit: and another similar product discussed on MSE a year ago:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3819869

What is "grid-buddy"]

As you can see this isn't cheap, even if you are considering FLA's/Gel batteries. Li-ion or LiFePO4 may be a future option, but are very expensive. Here's a blog of someone 'having a go', very interesting person, and have read some of their info and advice given on other forums:

http://diyesskit.blogspot.co.uk/


Long story short, I wouldn't expect too much today, but worth a revisit as things are happening fast.

Mart.

Cardew

Marksfish wrote: »

We had 3kw worth of panels installed earlier this year. We seem to be generating a lot of extra electricity, I thought I would need more for my aquarium, but may have been mistaken. We have been wondering about how we could maybe store the excess instead of exporting to the grid, for later use.

This week, a letter from our installers has been received about the Midnight Sun solar capture system. Basically a big gel battery system from what I can gather. Does anyone have any experience of this system at all as prices are not quoted anywhere that I can see on the net? I did see one forum mention that the cost may well be equivalent to the cost of the panels themselves, which would possibly make them not so attractive.

Thanks

For domestic applications, battery storage is simply a non-starter in terms of money saving.

thenudeone

Everthing I've read states it's simply not worth it for mains-connected properties.

Marksfish

Yes, I seem to be seeing this now too

Kernel_Sanders

If you're very lucky, you might just about recover the cost of the battery over its lifetime.