Future-Proofing Your Solar Investment with the Pika Energy Island™

A Pika Energy White Paper

Future-Proofing Your Solar Investment with the Pika Energy Island™Simplified battery-ready solar equipment for smart energy management

Adding a solar photovoltaic system to a home or business is an exceptional way to lower one’s energy costs over decades of electricity usage. But, as with any investment, the smart money is on maximizing the return and ensuring the dividends aren’t negatively impacted by external market effects.

When it comes to solar, you’re making a great investment; you’re locking in a low energy cost, increasing the value of your property, selling power back to the grid, and, in some markets, reaping incentive payments. That’s all in addition to replacing dirty fossil-fuel energy with clean power.

How secure is my investment in solar power?

Future-Proofing Your Solar Investment with the Pika Energy Island™

A Pika Energy White Paper

External conditions can negatively impact your return on your solar investment and reduce your potential savings. Let’s review these conditions, and then look at the best way to secure your solar investment against them.

The Solar Problem

Not everyone appreciates your decision to buy solar panels. Some utilities or state legislators have taken a hard stance against renewables, in some cases destroying the economic viability of adopting solar. Why do some policymakers fight renewables? Usually, it’s a response to the difficulty utilities have responding to peaking demand for grid power.

Utilities respond to ramping electricity demand in real time, usually with no inventory (storage) to help provide readily-available energy when it’s in high demand. More homes and businesses are adopting solar power, and until we build a smarter grid that includes batteries, those periods of peaking demand will be harder for utilities to predict and manage.

Therefore, U.S.-based solar buyers face a very real threat: The possibility of policymakers resisting renewables by creating policies that impede or remove the economic benefits of buying solar. Some states and utilities have repealed net metering (crediting solar-powered homes and businesses for their backfeeding energy), or have begun to bill customers based on their highest peaks of consumption, rather than their actual monthly total of consumed energy.

The Solution: Batteries

By relying on the grid to supply evening power and provide credits for daylight power that’s exported back to the grid, solar buyers are vulnerable to the changing whims of utilities and legislators. The solution? Using a home smart battery to keep the balance of power in your favor, no matter what happens.

• Case 1: Nevada In 2015, the state of Nevada eliminated net metering for all producers of solar power – including everyone who already has solar. Rather than selling to the grid for no benefit, these customers are better off with a battery to maximize the amount of free solar power they consume.

• Case 2: Arizona Some areas of Arizona will implement residential peak demand charges in 2017, billing homes monthly based on short periods of their highest usage. Homes can save big by using batteries to offset peaks.

• Case 3: California California has proposed a time-of-use (TOU) schedule that charges customers more for power at night when demand is highest. Batteries shift daylight solar power to evening energy needs, avoiding peak utility prices.

Why Solar Needs BatteriesThese recent examples illustrate the need for

solar buyers to ensure they have a battery-ready system. Could this happen in your state?

Solar panels are a great investment, unless your state legislature or public utility decides to curtail the economic benefits of producing clean power.

Solar panels produce the most power during daylight hours when most homes aren’t using much power. That power gets sold to the grid and bought back at night when homes need more electricity. When utilities stop paying solar customers for their backfed power, a battery maximizes the use of free solar power. As the charts show, the use of batteries stabilizes the grid, benefiting the utility, too.

Future-Proofing Your Solar Investment with the Pika Energy Island™

A Pika Energy White Paper

Pika Energy Island Features• Single, battery-ready inverter

Maximize simplicity and efficiency while minimizing cost.

• Flexible battery solutions Pika Energy’s patented platform works like a plug-and-play operating system for clean energy, allowing for a range of battery options to be added to the system.

• Maximum powerpoint tracking Harvest the most power from your solar array at all times with Pika PV Link™ optimizers.

• Free, built-in monitoring Watch your system make, store, and dispense clean power on the REview™ web/mobile monitoring dashboard.

• The beginning of your smart home The Pika Energy Island can directly power and manage advanced DC loads such as LED lights, electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps.

• Designed by a U.S. manufacturer Maine-based Pika Energy is led by MIT-trained engineers who share a vision of advancing the state of clean energy by building smart, simple, and affordable solutions.

The Pika Energy Island™ system Home solar solution for battery integration and smart energy management

What is a Smart Battery?

Conventional batteries made from materials such a lead acid can store and dispense energy reliably, but they typically require maintenance and don’t last more than a few years. Also, they are usually designed for low voltages, which limits efficiency and the amount of power you can draw from them when supporting a large load, such as your home’s critical loads during a grid outage.

A smart battery uses a higher internal voltage to increase effiency and power output. These batteries are usually made from lithium ion or similar long-lasting, maintenance-free materials.

Smart battery systems use advanced hardware and software to enable operational modes like self-supply, clean backup power and load-shifting (using daylight power at night by storing it in a battery).

Why Own a Smart Battery?

Reason number one: A smart battery system creates meaningful long-term savings for owners of solar power in markets that don’t provide full net metering credits, or where energy use is billed based on peaking periods.

In addition to these savings and the ability to secure your investment, there are, of course, additional benefits to owning a battery-enabled solar system with smart controls.

Grid LoadsInverterBatteryOptimized Solar

REbus™ 380V DC bus

Future-Proofing Your Solar Investment with the Pika Energy Island™

A Pika Energy White Paper

Additional Benefits of Owning a Smart Battery-Enabled Solar System

• Clean, quiet, no-maintenance backup power when the grid fails, providing a smart, high-efficiency alternative to a gas generator

• Self-consumption of clean power: For environmental –and sometimes economic– benefit, owners can use a battery to maximize the amount of solar energy they consume, in some cases avoiding purchasing grid power altogether

• Access to financial incentives: Some states and utilities offer incentives and crediting programs to encourage homes to buy batteries that utilities can remotely dispatch when needed to support peaking demand

• Energy arbitrage: Manage your energy bill by shifting your highest periods of usage to your battery, rather than buying from the grid. This is key to avoiding increased energy costs in areas with time-of-use billing.

The Pika Energy Island delivers these values to all buyers of solar power, with minimized hardware and maximized control. Using a single, battery-ready inverter with 7.6kW of power, the Pika Energy Island generates savings, secures your investment and adds the benefit of full islanding capability, powering your home when the grid fails.

The Pika Energy Island system includes built-in monitoring and user-friendly operational modes for self-supply, backup power and more. Its simplicity keeps costs low and reduces the risk of equipment failure.

As solar adoption continues to skyrocket, buyers now understand the need to invest in smart battery-ready solutions that keep the balance of power in their favor, no matter what happens. The Pika Energy Island brings the smart grid to you, ensuring many years of secure, low-cost electricity and smart energy management.

www.pika-energy.com / sales@pika-energy.com / (207) 887-9105

35 Bradley Drive #1Westbrook, ME 04092