Why battery storage for businesses may be worthwhile in 2021

April 29, 2021

While private individuals draw their motivation for a home storage system from their commitment to a sustainable energy supply, profitability plays a much greater role for business and industry. While you certainly want to make your business sustainable - otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this blog post - the endeavor should also be profitable.

In this article, we'll show you why the popular belief that electricity storage is only profitable with lavish subsidies and generous rebates no longer holds true, and why and for whom commercial storage may be worthwhile in 2021.

How do commercial battery storage facilities work?

In principle, electricity storage units for commercial and industrial applications function in exactly the same way as their smaller siblings for the home. They make energy available for flexible use at any time. The most classic use case is in conjunction with a solar system. If a lot of energy is generated by the PV system during the day, it often happens that electricity consumption is lower than generation. Without a storage system, this energy would be wasted. With a battery storage system, excess electricity can be collected and then used in times of bad weather. But even without a PV system, electricity storage can be profitable.

Steadily falling battery storage prices

For a long time, electricity storage systems were unprofitable and expensive, which is why progress in electromobility has been so slow. But times have changed - the production of lithium-ion batteries has picked up strongly in recent years and is expected to reach a capacity of 1.3 TWh by 2030 , a quadrupling of production capacity in 2019. The price of lithium-ion batteries , on the other hand, has fallen by ~88% from 2010 to 2020. This is also reflected in the storage market, with approximately 88,000 home storage units installed in the home sector in Germany in 2020. im Jahr 2020 ca. 88.000 Heimspeicher installiert. Auch der Commercial storage sales also increased by ~23% percent in 2019.

Attractive subsidies

In addition, there are numerous subsidy programs for PV systems & electricity storage in the DACH region, also for businesses. Below you can see a summary of the funding programs of the EU, Germany incl. the individual countries, Austria and Switzerland. The information below can also be found in the pv-magazine's funding atlas.

European Union

- Executive Agency for Innovation and Networks (INEA)
- Joint INTERREG Secretariat Germany
- Nederland c/o Euregio Rhen-Waal

Germany

Export Initiative Energy, Project Management Jülich, KfW Banking Group, Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), German Aerospace Center, German Federal Environmental Foundation, VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Zukunft-Umwelt-Gesellschaft (ZUG) GmbH, Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food

Austria

- Austria-wide funding for PV & electricity storage from special funding, climate fund and OEMAG
- Further federal state-specific funding.

Switzerland

- Promotion of photovoltaic systems through feed-in tariff systems and one-off payments for small and large systems

Baden-Württemberg

- Storage with PV up to 30 kWp receive 200€/kWh. From 30 kWp is subsidized with 300€/kWh. Max 30% of net investment costs 45.000€
- Intelligent connection of charging infrastructure to the power grid.

Bavaria

- PV and storage systems up to 30 kWh capacity with max. 3200€
- Munich: 300€ per kWh in conjunction with PV. Promotion up to max. 15.000€ or max. 50%. With island and autarky ability again 500€.

Berlin

- For new PV systems with storage, each 1 kWh of storage capacity is subsidized with 300€ per 1.2 kWp.
Max. 15.000€

Brandenburg

- Project promotion for enterprises and municipalities
- Energy audits and energy consulting with 35-80% promoted.

Hesse

- Focus on local authorities & energy service providers. Grant of 30-100%, minimum 25.000€
- Commercial with up to 30%. Min. 30.000€;
Max. 50.0000€.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

- Business, associations, municipal corporations; Min. 20.000€
- Consulting & planning with 5.000€;
Max. 50% of financing; Payback period min. 5 years.

Lower Saxony

- PV systems with storage up to 40% of net investment costs; Max. 50.000€
- Non-public charging infrastructure with 60-80% of total expenditure. Single charging points up to 22 W up to 2.500€; Charging points from 100 kW up to 10.0000€. (Planning & consulting up to 20 %)

Nordrhein Westfalen / North Rhine Westfalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

- New PV systems with storage (max. ratio 1:3) with 150€/kWh; Max. 75.000€.

Rhineland-Palatinate

- New PV systems with storage at 100€/kWh; Max. 10.000€
(Min. 10 kWh capacity + 10 kWp PV).

Saxony

- PV system with storage with 1.000€ + 200€/kWh; Max. 40.000€; Feed-in limit 50%.

Saxony-Anhalt

- PV with storage for tenant electricity up to 100 kWp
- Company (depending on size) storage with energy management system up to max. 500.000€.

Schleswig-Holstein

- Storage (with & without PV 3-30 kWp) 400€/kWh; Max. 2.000€

Thuringia

- Storage from 10 kWh with 25-40%
- Tenant electricity up to 80%
- Max. 100.000€, min. 60% own consumption

Commercial storage reduces your operating costs - even without photovoltaics

For home consumption, it's clear: an electricity storage system coupled with the PV system makes you independent of rising energy prices and helps to sustainably reduce energy costs in the household. But what about commercial customers, who often have to pay much lower electricity costs? Here, too, it is often worthwhile to install an electricity storage system.

Peak-shaving

In addition to the classic application with a PV system to increase self-consumption, there are interesting ways to reduce operating costs, especially for businesses. For companies with high peak loads, for example when starting up production machines, a commercial storage system can reduce power prices.

Offer charging stations

If you want to offer the possibility to charge electric cars, it may well be that your grid connection capacity is too low and you will have to pay expensive fees to your electricity provider to increase the grid connection capacity. This is especially relevant for fast charging stations. Here a commercial storage system provides a remedy: it can be charged continuously with the low grid connection power and provides the necessary power when an electric car is connected to the charging station. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Individual consideration is necessary

In general, economic efficiency is always related to the specific project. Contact us today and we will check together with our partners whether you have the prerequisites for economic operation. For this purpose, we at STABL Energy are available as inverter manufacturers together with our partners as consultants.

Conclusion

The fact that electricity storage systems are expensive and only something for sustainability enthusiasts is no longer the case in 2021. Thanks to falling storage prices, the wide range of possible applications and attractive subsidy programs offered by the federal states, you as a business owner can make your operation more economical in a sustainable way. Finally, we at STABL Energy have a tip for you:

Keeping efficiency in mind!

An important consideration in operating costs that is often overlooked is the efficiency of the system. During the storage and discharge processes, losses occur due to energy conversion, which can have a negative impact on operating costs. The inverter, in particular, plays a significant role here. Learn more about how STABL Energy's inverter outperforms conventional inverters in terms of efficiency on our website.