New Analytical Tool for PV-Battery Systems coupled with Energy-Efficiency

Freiburg, May 2018. Büro Ö-quadrat has developed an integrated energy analysis tool, which enables calculations of the economic performance and carbon balance of PV installation in conjunction with battery storage, energy-efficiency measures and electric car charging. The tool is transparent in regard to its calculations and assumptions with an aim to provide reliable and objective results.

Among the almost 80,000 newly installed PV systems in 2018, about 80% were small-scale rooftop systems up to 10 kWp mostly owned by private individuals.  Although these small rooftop systems constitute only about 15% of the PV capacity installed annually, they represent an important segment of the German PV market. In recent years, many new rooftop PV systems are installed with a battery storage to increase the self-utilisation of the generated electricity. In Germany, for example, every second newly installed PV systems in 2017 below 30 kWp was equipped with a battery system. The application of PV-battery systems is expected to grow due to the progressive reduction in feed-in tariff for new systems, the gradual expiration of the feed-in tariffs for existing systems from 2021 and further decrease in battery prices.

Despite the growing popularity of battery storage, there is no independent and transparent analytical tool for households to evaluate the profitability suggested by the system sellers and manufacturers. Furthermore, none of the online tools provided by manufacturers incorporates electricity-saving as a lever to further reduce the system costs. 

In view of these shortfalls, an integrated energy analytical tool has been developed to enable calculations of the economic performance and carbon balance of PV installation in conjunction with battery storage, energy-saving measures and electric car charging. The tool takes into account the different energy flows in the system and derives results based on their interaction.

The tool was developed in collaboration with the Öko-Institut with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in its first release. A second version, which incorporates e-cars and carbon footprint was developed in collaboration with the local energy company EWS Schönau in Germany and can be downloaded here. The tool is designed to be used by energy consultants as well as householders, who are interested in the installation of PV-battery systems. Energy companies who are interested in knowing more about the analytical tool are invited to contact Büro Ö-quadrat. 

Contact
Dr. Sebastian Albert-Seifried
Büro Ö-quadrat
Turnseestr. 44
79102 Freiburg
Tel. 0761-70773279
E-Mail