Is solar energy storage worth it in South Africa?
For nearly 15 years, South Africa has been faced with an energy crisis. The country is predominantly reliant on outdated coal plants that require regular maintenance and are often offline, meaning South Africa’s people are constantly living in a state of uncertainty around their power. Households and businesses are plagued by unpredictable and unplanned power outages known as periods of ‘load shedding’, making even the simplest of daily tasks a challenge.
However, solar energy is largely considered to be the long-term solution to South Africa’s power situation. The country’s abundant sunshine and vast open flats make it the perfect candidate for large-scale solar, coupled with the ever-declining prices of solar products and the steadily increasing electricity tariffs.
One of the primary drawbacks of solar power is its intermittency. Whilst solar is the perfect power source during sun hours, a PV installation cannot continue generating electricity at night or on low-irradiation days. Fortunately, battery storage could be the solution. But is it really worth it in South Africa?
The importance of PV batteries
The primary perk of a grid-tied solar PV system at your home or business is the cost savings it offers. With energy tariffs at an all-time high and only creeping up, being able to rely on the sun’s energy during the day instead of Eskom’s expensive power prices is a clear benefit.
However, a common misconception about having solar at your home or business is that the power will keep running during load shedding. However, once the national grid goes offline, all grid-tied solar inverters will switch off, too. To reap the full benefits of solar energy in South Africa, a battery back-up is paramount. Incorporating batteries into a solar installation allows you to store any surplus energy generated for later use when the sun goes down.
So, battery storage is undoubtedly worth it in a country such as South Africa, where there are regular power outages. If the motivations for installing a solar system are centred around having power available during load shedding, then incorporating a battery bank is the only solution.
Energy storage you can count on
Pylontech is a leading manufacturer of high-quality lithium solar batteries, and we are proud to stock a variety of Pylontech solution on the SegenSolar portal.
PV batteries are designed for use in either residential or commercial applications. Pylontech offers an array of storage solutions for small-scale and large-scale solar installations alike, giving all corners of South Africa access to renewable energy storage.
For residential low-voltage applications, we recommend the Pylontech US2000C or the US3000C solutions. These products are designed using ultra-safe lithium storage technology and offer 6,000 cycles at 95% depth of discharge. With a seven-year warranty and exceptional scalability, these Pylontech batteries are a fundamental component of any reliable solar storage system.
Pylontech’s Powercube H2 is perfect for all commercial applications. This solution is an elite high-voltage solar battery, offering scalable and flexible configuration options for easy installation, maintenance and expansion. Up to 18 batteries can be configured into a single stack, and you can link up to six stacks in parallel! What’s more, this battery comes with a 10-year warranty as standard（7 years for basic warranty, another 3 years could be available after successful registration）.
And if you want to keep your high-voltage Pylontech batteries safe, you can secure them in the Pylontech PowerTower: a premium storage solution for high-voltage batteries that come with a lockable door kit.
Pylontech is your recommended energy storage manufacturer when you purchase a system on the SegenSolar portal. Log in to view the full range today.