Coupled with your home solar system, the BESS energy storage system gives you greater control over your energy usage and bills and helps you get the most from your solar investment.

Reduce Electricity Bills

Adding an energy storage system to your home can effectively reduce the electricity bill. Installing an energy storage system will keep the total power consumption below a specified value. With on-site storage, you can charge your batteries whenever electricity rates are at their lowest (during off-peak hours or with your free solar energy).

Maximize Self-Consumption

The energy storage system can perfectly suit commercial and residential uses. During the daytime, the system can collect and store energy, which can be used at night whenever needed. Property owners are provided with the most efficient use of solar energy at home, including grid independence, increased self-consumption, and reduced electricity bills.

Emergency Power Backup

Don’t worry about the sudden power failure. Residential energy storage solutions integrated with solar panels can ensure energy backup. The backup power system is used to provide energy when the primary source fails for the 24/7 power supply.

Installing battery storage in your home does not necessarily mean that you can disconnect completely from the electrical grid.

While it’s possible to go off the grid, the number of solar panels and the amount of battery storage you may need to invest in could mean it’s not financially viable.

Generally speaking, going off-grid is not practical for the average urban consumer because:

It might be difficult to store enough energy to reliably cover your use during cloudy days in winter;

You would not be able to sell any surplus energy back to the grid;

There are likely to be significant extra costs (e.g. special additional equipment like the installation of an air-conditioning system) for the battery.

BESS recommends an indoor installation for home batteries, ideally in the garage. Outdoor installations are possible, but it is recommended to install them in a shaded area to protect the battery system from extreme weather conditions. The ideal temperature is between 15-110° F, so your location and climate can play a factor.

Indoor and outdoor Powerwall installations are possible since they’re water-resistant and built for all weather conditions. The Powerwall can operate within a wide range of temperatures (from -4°F to 122°F).

You should still avoid installing it in areas with direct sunlight or constant high/low temperatures.

BESS Storage comes with a 10-year warranty, as part of BESS’s Complete Confidence Warranty. With the leading solar warranty in the industry, BESS offers that same great protection and peace of mind with your BESS system.

While the solar warranty will cover your system for 25 years, remember that your home battery warranty offers coverage for 10 years. Replacements and repairs are also covered at no cost during the warranty period.

BESS Powerwall batteries are also covered by a 10-year warranty and a four-year workmanship warranty to cover replacements and repairs. BESS also provides an unlimited cycle warranty and 24/7 support for any Powerwall-related issues.

Both BESS Storage and Powerwalls charge when it’s sunny and discharge based on your settings. Each system has its settings that will allow you to select how much stored energy to use daily and how much to reserve for use during an outage.

BESS has a “Cost Savings” mode in the app that will allow you to save more money by using your solar + battery during expensive energy peak rate hours. In “Reserve” mode, you can reserve 100% of your battery in case the electricity goes out.

This depends on a variety of factors. Utility rates, the amount of energy you use, your rate structure, whether you have a pool or EV, your roof orientation and resulting system design, and a few additional variables that your energy consultant will review with you.

Your proposal should always include an annual savings estimate based on your current electricity use. You can speak to one of our solar representatives today for a free solar + home battery quote for your home.

Ready to find out how much you can save with solar and protect your home from power outages? Contact us today for a free customized quote.

Energy storage fundamentally improves the way we generate, deliver, and consume electricity. Battery energy storage systems can perform, among others, the following functions:

Provide the flexibility needed to increase the level of variable solar and wind energy that can be accommodated on the grid.

Help provide back-up power during emergencies like blackouts from storms, equipment failures, or accidents.

Lower costs by storing energy when the price of electricity is low and discharging that energy back onto the grid during peak demand.

Balance power supply and demand instantaneously, which makes the electrical grid more reliable, resilient, efficient, and cleaner than ever before.

Battery energy storage systems vary in size from residential units of a few kilowatt-hours to utility-scale systems of hundreds of megawatt-hours, but they all share a similar architecture.

These systems begin with individual battery cells, which are electrically connected and then packaged in a battery module. Battery modules are aggregated with controls and other equipment and housed within racks, which in turn are built into an enclosure, such as a cabinet ISO shipping container, or a building.

One or more of these enclosures or buildings, along with necessary electrical equipment, comprise the battery energy storage facility that discharges to or charges from the electrical grid.

Battery energy storage systems operate by converting electricity from the grid or a power generation source (such as from solar or wind) into stored chemical energy.

When the chemical energy is discharged, it is converted back into electrical energy. This is the same process used with phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.

However, while batteries in consumer electronics have a single function, those connected to the electrical grid — which are much larger — serve more complex functions. For instance, electrical grid batteries must be combined with power conversion devices to produce AC (alternating current) power.

Batteries connected to the electrical grid can also have a different composition than those found in consumer electronics.

Safety events that result in fires or explosions are rare. Explosions constitute a greater risk to personnel, so the US energy storage industry has prioritized the deployment of safety measures such as emergency ventilation to reduce the buildup of flammable gases.

Such ventilation can reduce the effectiveness of fire suppression, so an increasing number of manufacturers have adopted a strategy of allowing fires in individual battery enclosures to burn out in a controlled manner, while also preventing the propagation of fire between enclosures. The rationale is that fire consumes any flammable gases as they are produced, thus preventing explosions.

Additionally, allowing the battery to burn avoids problems with stranded energy and reignition, both of which have been issues with electric vehicle fires. The monitoring systems of energy storage containers include gas detection and monitoring to indicate potential risks.

As the energy storage industry reduces risk and continues to enhance safety, industry members are working with first responders to ensure that fire safety training includes protocols that avoid explosion risk.

Battery energy storage system operators develop robust emergency response plans based on a standard template of national best practices that are customized for each facility.

These best practices include extensive collaboration with first responders and address emergency situations that might be encountered at an energy storage site, including extreme weather, fires, security incidents and more. They also address emergency response roles and highlight the importance of coordinating with first responders—particularly during planning—to ensure there is a complete and detailed shared understanding of potential emergencies and the proper safety responses.

Emergency response plans also include contact details for subject-matter experts who can advise first responders on appropriate actions for each situation.

Battery energy storage systems are currently deployed and operational in all environments and settings across the United States, from the freezing temperatures of Alaska to the deserts of Arizona.

These systems are designed with associated heating and cooling systems to ensure optimal battery operations and life based on the environmental conditions at the installation location.

Not only are battery energy storage facilities built to withstand disruptive weather events, but they can also help increase resiliency to extreme weather events, prevent power outages, and provide backup power.

In normal operation, energy storage facilities do not release pollutants to the air or waterways. Like all energy technologies, batteries can present chemistry-specific hazards under fault conditions.

Batteries with free-flowing electrolytes could leak or spill chemicals, so these systems are normally equipped with spill containment. Batteries with aqueous electrolytes may emit small quantities of hydrogen gas in normal operation and larger amounts under fault conditions, but these emissions are handled by ventilation systems and are not considered polluting.

As discussed previously, all batteries release toxic substances in a fire, and if water is used for firefighting, it can create contaminated runoff – another reason for manufacturers’ recommendations to allow fires to burn themselves out.

Like batteries used in handheld devices, lithium-ion and other types of batteries do not give off electromagnetic radiation. These batteries store electrical energy in chemical form, which can be converted back into electrical energy and discharged back to the grid.

This conversion is performed by a bidirectional inverter, which must be tested and certified for electromagnetic compatibility.

Batteries alone do not make any noise. Unlike other power infrastructure or generation facilities, energy storage systems have very low noise profiles, with fans, HVAC systems, and transformers producing sounds at similar levels to standard commercial buildings.

Battery energy storage systems may or may not be visible from a facility’s property line. Grid batteries can be housed in a variety of enclosures or buildings, none of which are taller than a house.

Energy storage facilities are often unmanned and do not need light to function. Some may have lighting for security purposes, and this would be consistent with normal street lighting.

Grid battery life depends on usage and can last for 20 years or more. One of the earliest deployed grid-scale battery energy storage systems, put into operation in Alaska by the Golden Valley Electric Association, has been in continuous operation since 2003.

Batteries will degrade based on numerous factors such as chemical composition, number of charge and discharge cycles, and the temperature of the environment that the batteries are exposed to.

Energy storage systems are typically defined as either AC or DC-coupled systems. This is simply the point of connection for the energy storage system for the electrical grid or other equipment.

For AC (alternating current) coupled systems, the batteries are connected to the part of the grid that has AC or alternating current.

For energy storage systems that are also connected to solar energy, there is an option to have the energy storage system be DC (direct current) coupled. Since solar generation systems create DC electricity, it is often most efficient to have this go directly to the batteries (via a DC-DC converter) as DC energy. This can be utilized for residential, commercial, or utility applications.

The U.S. lithium-ion battery recycling industry is growing rapidly to accommodate batteries from both electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Companies are moving beyond simple recovery of raw materials and into direct recycling of electrode materials that can be built sustainably and cost-effectively into new batteries.

Indeed, energy storage applications provide the opportunity to repurpose batteries from end-of-life electric vehicles, extracting maximum usage from these units for the benefit of consumers.

Battery energy storage systems are equipped with sensors that track battery temperatures and enable storage facilities to turn off batteries if they get too hot or too cold.

Battery management systems also monitor the performance of each cell voltage and other key parameters and then aggregate that data in real-time to assess the entire system’s operation, detect anomalies, and adjust the system to maintain safety. Battery management systems often contain state of the art software designed to safely operate and monitor energy storage systems.

Battery energy storage systems must comply with electrical and fire codes adopted at the state and local levels. Facility owners must submit documentation on system certification, fire safety test results, hazard mitigation, and emergency response to the local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) for approval.

Before the operation, facility staff and emergency responders must be trained in safety procedures and are required to be given annual refresher training.

The fire codes require battery energy storage systems to be certified to UL 9540, Energy Storage Systems and Equipment. Each major component – battery, power conversion system, and energy storage management system – must be certified to its own UL standard, and UL 9540 validates the proper integration of the complete system. Additionally, non-residential battery systems exceeding 50 kWh must be tested by UL 9540A, Standard for Test Method for Evaluating Thermal Runaway Fire Propagation in Battery Energy Storage Systems.

This test evaluates the amount of flammable gas produced by a battery cell in a thermal runaway and the extent to which thermal runaway propagates within the battery system.

Rated power is the total possible instantaneous discharge capability, usually in kilowatts (kW) or megawatts (MW), of the system. Energy is the maximum amount of stored energy (rate of power over a given time), usually described in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or megawatt-hours MWh.

Cycles are the number of times the battery goes from fully (or nearly fully) charged to discharged (or fully discharged). The amount of time or cycles a battery storage system can provide regular charging and discharging before failure or significant degradation is typically the cycle lifetime.

State of Charge (SoC) is usually expressed as a percentage and represents the battery’s level of charge and ranges from completely discharged to fully charged. The state of charge influences a battery’s ability to provide energy or ancillary services to the grid at any given time.

State of Health (SoH) is a calculation that will express the estimated remaining capacity including degradation. This can be simplified into the difference between a new battery and the actual battery based on the amount of capacity lost to degradation caused by time, temperature, number of cycles, and several other factors.