Solar Energy: How Close is the 'Off the Grid' Reality?

Basic laws of supply and demand dictate that as global demand for energy continues to rise, the price of energy will rise as well.  These expected energy price increases, along with environmental and security concerns, have led to an explosion in the renewable energy industries, especially at the individual consumer level.

Solar is by far the most common renewable energy technology at the individual consumer level.  The main drawback to solar is its relative lack of reliability, for instance on days that are cloudy or night time (though interestingly, supermoons can contribute small amounts of solar energy).  As energy costs rise, so does financial incentive to discover efficient methods of storage for solar energy.

Great strides have been made toward creating and improving grid-scale storage technology, including reverse water pumps, chemical energy storage and industrial sized ion batteries.  However, production of individual consumer scale storage seems to be lagging.

The most common method of individual consumer storage is a rechargeable battery.  The most efficient batteries may run only essentials, such as lights and refrigerator, for a few days without being recharged.  A battery would provide much less time for the energy usage of an average household, including televisions, clocks, appliances and other electronic devices.  While this may be a viable option for regions with abundant sun, like the desert southwest, most of the country is not usually able to count on such reliable weather.

The future is looking a little brighter though.  In 2007 California passed a law offering over $2 billion in incentives for the solar industry, including research and production of renewable storage technology.  In the US Congress, the Storage Technology for Renewable & Green Energy (STORAGE) Act has been introduced by Ron Wyden, D-OR and Susan Collins, R-ME.  This bill "promotes the deployment of energy storage technologies."  Internationally, Germany launched a program last month offering a subsidy covering up to 30% of the purchase of a solar energy storage system.

These incentives have created a much more active market.  At this year's Intersolar North America conference, there were over 200 energy storage vendors, up from about 12 just three years ago.  According to Markus Elsaesser, CO of Intersolar, there has been a similar trend at the other Intersolar conferences in Munich, Beijing, Mumbai and Sao Paulo.

Elsaesser sees nothing but a big future for solar.  "We will go from this year's 30 gigawatts of new installations to over 100 gigawatts of new installations per year" in the near future.  Such an expansion of solar usage can only spur greater investment and development of storage techniques.

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