The state subsidies for photovoltaic installations, launched for the first time in 2018, resulted in the rapid spread of solar panels on the roofs of Polish houses. In the first three editions of the My Electricity program, with a total budget of over PLN 1.8 billion, 444 thousand zlotys were received. requests from individuals who want to produce electricity from the sun. It is estimated that there are over 866,000 in total in Poland. micro-installations connected to home networks photovoltaicand by the end of the year their number may exceed 1 million.
Representatives of companies specializing in renewable energy sources have long proposed that the subsidy system, which has so strongly stimulated photovoltaics in Poland, also cover energy storage. These appeals were implemented only this year – The fourth edition of the My Electricity program, launched on April 15, allows you to obtain funding not only for the purchase and installation of solar panels, but also, among others, energy storage.
The budget for the implementation of the fourth edition of the program is PLN 350 million. A prosumer (a person who consumes and produces electricity at the same time) for a warehouse installation energy can obtain up to 7.5 thousand. zloty. Nevertheless, the chances of the warehouses repeating the spectacular success of the solar panels are so far slim.
– As an industry, we have been calling for several years to include energy storage in the My Electricity subsidy program. It only happened this year, and it’s definitely too late. First, we allowed the owners of photovoltaic micro-installations to let the excess of produced energy into the grid, and it will be difficult to convince this group of customers to invest in additional energy storage. This year, a new billing system was introduced for prosumers, but it is still not a mechanism that would provide an appropriate incentive to store electricity, because the return on such investments with low energy demand would last for many years – explains Krzysztof Kochanowski, vice president and general director of the Polish Chamber of Storage Energy (PIME).
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The right direction, but a lot of challenges
Industry representatives are convinced that the activation of the subsidies was necessary. However, they add that this is only the first step to popularize energy storage in Poland. – IN the first beneficiaries of subsidies for energy storage are energy consumers who have high energy consumption, those who can afford and those who are most aware. That is why it is so important that the subsidies are followed by an information campaign showing the benefits of having such devices. Besides, the budget of the new edition of the program is not satisfactory. It is about PLN 300 million, which – if they were even entirely allocated to energy storage – would result in the creation of only about 46 thousand. devices. And this is a drop in the ocean against the backdrop of photovoltaic micro-installations that Poles already have on the roofs of their houses – notes Kochanowski.
PIME already proposed three years ago that the amount of subsidies for energy storage should reach 15,000. zloty.
According to estimates, at the end of 2020, 27.5 MW of capacity were installed in Poland, with approx. 7 thousand home energy storage in battery technology.
– The offer of home energy storage is growing every year, but the number of purchased devices is still very low. The My Current 4.0 program can change this, creating greater interest among prosumers – emphasizes Cezary Klimont, president of Elimen Group.
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High prices of devices remain a barrier to market development, hence the industry’s struggle for financial aid for households that have their own solar power plants and could store their surplus energy.
– Energy storage is not a cheap solution. When buying a device with a capacity of about 9 kWh, you have to take into account the cost of about 14 thousand. PLN up to 35,000 PLN and morewithout assembly and additional equipment, such as cables, energy meters, inverter, etc. However, a 9 kWh warehouse can provide an energy reserve for several hours or even days, depending on the energy consumption of the building and the number of devices necessary to ensure the comfort of living of the residents – Klimont adds.
Warehouses are a way to relieve the national power grid that is already on it cannot cope with the growing number of green installations. Their role is to store the excess renewable energy produced in periods of lower demand and return it to the grid during peak demand periods, as well as to stabilize the parameters of the voltage supplied to the grid. For investors, however, energy self-sufficiency is of key importance.
– The main motive that encourages consumers to invest in energy storage is the possibility of ensuring their own energy security and self-sufficiency. This is important for businesses as well as individual consumers. The ability to become independent from energy companies and rely on your own, fully ecological energy sources is a value in itself, prompting you to invest in a storage system even when the rate of return is very low – Klimont convinces.
The market requires deeper changes
For faster development of the energy storage market, not only subsidies are needed, but also deeper changes in the energy market. According to PIME, it would be beneficial for prosumers to introduce dynamic tariffs for them electricityso using different energy prices for individual hours, and in the future even minutes (also in distribution fees), or not at all remodeling the energy market in such a way that the owner of solar panels not only earns on the production of energy from his own installation and pays lower electricity bills, but also can earn on the stored energy (a market would be created for energy aggregators).
– Deregulation of the energy market and the emergence of flexibility services will cause investors to build RES with energy storage without auctions or subsidies. The lack of market solutions is a sin of omission answering the question to what extent these mechanisms could help the energy system solve problems with flexibility and access to the grid for new investments – concludes the CEO of PIME.
Another problem that the industry sees is the lack of proper preparation of photovoltaic installers who need training in the installation and servicing of energy storage.
The new version of the My Electricity program it is also subsidies for heat storage (up to PLN 5,000) or energy management systems (up to PLN 3,000).
– We want prosumers to be as independent and independent as possible in managing the energy they produce in their home. The fourth edition of the My Electricity program should therefore create mechanisms that will stimulate an increase in energy consumption by the producers themselves, and at the same time rationalize the entire production process in such a way as to ensure the stability of the power grid. This will be possible thanks to systems allowing for short-term – up to several days – energy storage in heat or through the use of electrochemical processes. Thanks to subsidies, we want to popularize both of these elements, assured Paweł Mirowski, acting president of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, announcing the launch of the call for applications for subsidies.
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