It's about more than financial benefit

Among the daunting amount of reporting about home batteries, the main issue is often about how much financial benefit such a system actually delivers. Of course that's an important part, but it's also good to look at other reasons than just money. Because batteries are also essential to stop climate change.

According to research from the University of Stavanger, the Netherlands is one of only two countries in Europe where there is so much solar panel capacity installed that at certain times more solar power is produced than can be consumed by all of us (the other country is Cyprus). More than 30 GW (GigaWatt, 1 GW = 1,000,000 kiloWatt) of peak capacity has been installed to date. Does that mean we've reached the limit? Not quite: according to the government's climate plan, the amount of capacity must be doubled before 2031 (to around 59.4 GW) in order to meet the CO2 emission targets. But what this does mean is that from now on every expansion of installed solar panel capacity must go hand in hand with storage, in other words: batteries must be added to every new solar panel system.

Simultaneously the demand for electricity must grow to be able to handle all that generated power. That doesn't mean that energy should be wasted unnecessarily, but it does mean that we must increasingly switch from gas and petrol to clean electricity as a fuel. That means: heat pumps, induction cooking, electric driving, etc.

Three pillars

The road to a CO2-neutral world therfore rests on three pillars: more clean generation, more storage, and more electrification. If you purchase batteries now, you're doing something that is just as important for the environment as when you had your solar panels installed. And if, for example, you switch from cooking on a gas stove to cooking on induction, you are also taking an important step for the environment (and for your health too by the way!)

The fact that home batteries are a good idea financially is becoming well known. But that they also play an essential role in creating space for more green energy should certainly not be forgotten. We can all still do a lot to combat climate change, and that is urgently needed. Installing a home battery is one of the things you can do, and we at Zonnefabriek would like to help you with that.