Solar boss takes Queensland home off-grid, with a 7.5 year payback

In Australia, the utility lobby says that the payback time to take a suburban home off grid is nearly 30 years. But soaring fixed network charges, and plunging battery storage costs, are rapidly changing the equation. In northern Queensland, the pay-back time may be as little as 7.5 years.

Steve Madson, the head of Country Solar, is feeling pretty pleased with himself.

Five days after installing a 10.8kWh Samsung lithium-ion battery storage system in his suburban Townsville home in north Queensland, and three days after (temporarily) flicking the switch from the grid, Madson is watching the rain fall – and the charge in his battery storage system is still going up.

“Last night was the first rains for the year in Townsville and it was very welcome, because many suburbs in town have power outages because of the rain,” Madson tells One Step Off the Grid. “I decided to make sure I drained my battery to see how much charge I could put in with a rainy, overcast day.

“I have 5KW of solar on my roof currently and I will lift that to 6.5KW in the coming weeks. Right now, my pool pump is running, two fridges and all standby equipment is on – and my battery is charging and has come from 6 per cent to 18 per cent in the pouring rain!!!”

That was Madson speaking at 10am. By the end of the day, despite the rain and the cloudy weather, the battery storage system had charged to 65 per cent. It would have been fully charged if he hadn’t left the pool pump on, but he was keen to test the system.

The result is good news for Madson, because in the next few weeks he intends to take his home permanently off the grid, and judging by the number of inquiries his business is receiving (about 50 a week), he expects many others to follow.

That’s because for an all in cost of around $25,000, consumers can get a 10.8kWh battery storage system and around 7kW of rooftop solar. In north Queensland, that’s enough to take a home off grid, and deliver a payback of 7.5 years. That’s one reason why Madson decided that he’d better lead by example.

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Steve Madson (right) with Samsung representatives installing his 10.8kWh battery storage system in his Townsville garage.

He has taken delivery of one of the first Samsung 10.8kWh systems, the first scaleable grid-connected Samsung system in the world, and in his case, the first to be used in an off-grid application.

“This unit is the first of its kind installed in the world, we have this unit currently still connected to the grid whilst we learn all the features and functions though we plan to be off grid completely at the start of December.”

And Madson does not anticipate problems with going off grid. His 6.5kW of rooftop solar PV will produce more than 24.5kWh per day in winter, more than his home usage of 18kWh a day. In summer, the system will produce an average of 38kWh per day, more than covering his increased usage of 30kwh per day.

“I have a swimming pool, an aquaponics vegetable garden, we are in a hot humid environment so the house is air-conditioned with inverter split system air cons,” Madsons says.

“Because of the grid service fees my initial back up power will be a backup LPG generator, although I will purchase an electric vehicle early in the New Year and that will remove the need for the backup generator.” Here is a screenshot of his solar power output, his battery storage status, and his load, from Wednesday.

Madson-screenshot-1024x499-2

Madson says he would prefer to stay connected with the grid, but the connection charges make no sense, given the rising fixed network charges imposed by the local operator. (See this for more details of Queensland fixed charges).

“When home energy storage with lithium-ion battery technology started to become a reality I was getting really excited, both for myself having a new toy but also for the greater good of the community,” Madson says.

“For years I have been told the reason electricity prices are so high is because solar does not influence peak demand, that peak demand in sunny North Queensland where I live happens in the early evening these days and that is due to air-conditioning loads.

“I wondered if solar storage households like mine be connected to the grid and used as a filter to level grid demand. Wouldn’t the ability to help the grid by feeding from your home energy storage system or EV solve the greatest problem in the history of the centralised power network?”

Apparently not. The Ergon network they have increased the daily service charges and added metering charges which, when added up, amount to around $600 a year.

“That leads me to believe they will continue to increase fixed charges and lower the rate of electricity. But even if it remains at $600 a year over the expected 15 year life of my (storage) investment,  that is $9,000 of fixed charges and $9,000 buys me a lot of extra redundancy to ensure I won’t need the grid.”

Madson says the $25,000 cost of such a bundle should deliver a payback of around 7.5 years, given the high network fees and electricity charges.

That is little more than half the cost ($42,000) and one quarter of the pay-back time (29 years) suggested by the Energy Supply Association of Australia earlier this year, when it sought to throw cold water on battery storage following the publicity surrounding the unveiling of the Tesla Powerwall.

“With our electricity prices, these battery storage systems are already delivering fantastic returns. The modelling (of the utilities) is all wrong,” Madson says. (Although it should be pointed out that homes in southern states, particularly Victoria, would need much more battery storage to get through their winters).

The response by the utilities industry, particularly the move to jack up fixed charges, has left Madson confused and regretting a missed opportunity.

“If we worked as a community connected to the grid, using home energy storage systems and EVs to smooth out demand and supply, everyone in Australia would benefit and networks and retails would be much more profitable.

“And it would mean the road to the state target of 50 per cent renewable energy would be accelerated. Instead, the opposite will happen as a wave of people leave the grid on the back of unfair fixed charges.”

Madson says it would be more efficient to stay connected to the grid and a peer to peer system allowing people to build what they deem enough, and retain the ability to buy and sell electricity with my neighbours when circumstances change ( like family come to stay and energy requirements increase for a week).

“If the electricity grids rolled this model out people could lease their roof tops to investors to trade electricity, they would make money, the grid would make money in transport fees and we would see 100% renewables in just a few years.”

This story was first published on our sister site One Step Off the Grid. To sign up for the weekly newsletter, click here.

Comments

23 responses to “Solar boss takes Queensland home off-grid, with a 7.5 year payback”

  1. Ruben Avatar
    Ruben

    Very optimistic calculations, he’s not off-grid (and his battery is far too small to allow him to go off grid) and he’s using a crazy amount of electricity. As the head of solar company, you would have thought that he’d be a bit more conscious of his consumption.

    1. Reality Bites Avatar
      Reality Bites

      I think those consumption figures are about right, maybe a little high, however agree that one unit will not be enough. In summer, if he has a family of 4 and runs the aircon at night, that alone would use up all the capacity of the battery. Perhaps Giles can do a follow up story in about March 2016 i.e. after summer.

    2. Jacob Avatar
      Jacob

      conscious?

      Government does not allow 4 storey apartments to come up so urban sprawl is continuing.

      Urban sprawl is probably vastly more destructive. People that do not want a backyard are forced to have one while those that do want a backyard are forced to live in bushfire prone areas.

  2. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
    Humanitarian Solar

    Inspirational way shower experimenting through trial and error. “The credit belongs to the man in the arena”, (World’s fastest Indian”. This leader will clock up some experience for Samsung’s storage, so we can stack it up against its competitors. As a professional installer, I trust Madson has researched what he felt was the best way for his family to get a winner… to kick a goal for his family and the environment. Inspirational. That’s leadership. Journalism at its best. Well done Renew Economy and One Step Off the Grid.

  3. Chris Drongers Avatar
    Chris Drongers

    Mr Madson sums up well the contradiction in the arguments against small scale behind the meter PV and storage; both avoid grid charges. But the retail industry responds to the threat of grid charge avoidance by jacking up grid charges while maintaining high retail margins. The electricity grid players then accuse the behind the meter consumer of acting irrationally.
    Instead,if the domestic consumer who puts up her own money to essentially reduce grid costs was allowed to keep most of the grid savings, a more economically and technically rational outcome of remaining connected to the grid with a mix of domestic and grid-nodal storage and generation would evolve.

    1. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
      Humanitarian Solar

      If people like Madson don’t demonstrate their personal power to stand alone if necessary, there will be no motivation for politicians to overhaul a corrupt grid which is exploiting many Australian’s in a vicious circle of poverty. Your argument is based upon the premise networks care, when they are a money making venture for shareholders – not primarily to provide a public service. The entire regulation of the electricity industry needs a Royal Commission into fair relations with the grid and I hope Mr Turnbull has the intellect to lead and implement the needed changes, to get our country back on track with world grid parity.

      1. Reality Bites Avatar
        Reality Bites

        Are you dreaming…… The grid is still mostly owned by the states and the controlling entity is the AER, which is a Federal Government entity. Why would the government of the day investigate state and federal government decisions, when it already knows the answer. The grid is not corrupt it is just a bureaucratic entity acting on government instructions. Do you believe more government interference will resolve anything!?

        1. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
          Humanitarian Solar

          Madson has struck a powerful warning blow against the grid/s. Resourced Australians in Queensland now have their evidence solar/storage is a viable financial option for leaving the grid. Madson will no doubt attract a sizeable following of customers reacting against the emerging anti-solar sentiment of grid operators. Politicians and the Courts are responsible for the rules of the land. To not respond at this crucial juncture in history would place the grid in jeopardy. We need to have faith in our politicians. Elsewhere commentators have suggested politicians are in the pockets of big business to fund election campaigns and yet if politicians stand by and watch the grid fall into disrepair and rising costs for a lesser service, that trajectory will lead to unhappy voters. Unlike his predecessor, Turnbull has accepted the invitation to Paris and I for one believe he his here to demonstrate the highest in human nature by not yielding to big business and private lobby groups, who would seek to maintain a tight exclusive control of the grid, leaving the poor with a dirty old inefficient grid and relegating new technology to the rich.

          1. Reality Bites Avatar
            Reality Bites

            Now I know you are dreaming! I suggest Madson will find out that he is hopelessly below capacity to operate a family home in Townsville with 10.8 kWh (9.72 useable). He will need at least 2 if not 3 units to be truly free of the grid and have security of supply, otherwise he will be in potential energy poverty, having to tell the kids and wife, sorry no aircon tonight! Storage is not yet a viable option and at the moment is the toy of either the wealthy or people like Madson who have a motivation to early adopt. Your other comments are just ill informed rubbish.

          2. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
            Humanitarian Solar

            Only a materialist thinks living without air con is energy poverty. Ever heard of passive solar design? I suggest you let Madson manage his energy usage rather than making your assumptions and second guessing. As for my comments being rubbish you demonstrate your lack of intellect with your groundless attack without the guts to say whatever it is you think isn’r right. Actually Madson is in Queensland and has plenty of winter peak sun hours to work with and has already stated his next fallback position for any problems, which is increase PV.

          3. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
            Humanitarian Solar

            People here are happy with a simple life and that amount of storage seems large to us.

          4. nakedChimp Avatar
            nakedChimp

            aircon at night? what are you smoking?
            If he’s off-grid he will run it when the sun is up and can reduce when the sun goes down.. the house will be cool already. He doesn’t feed into the grid, he needs to use the power when it’s being produced.
            In Townsville a back of the envelope estimation should give him ~20kWh-25kWh of solar electricity per day with his 5/6.5kW system.
            This means all heavy loads should be running when the sun is up (water heating, pool pump, air con, washing machine, etc. pp).
            Any other load that can’t be scheduled to the sun cycle (cooking, entertainment, fridges, etc.) has to come from the batteries.. so he’s got like 9 kWhs for that.

            As soon as he get’s an EV he’s screwed unless he finds another 10kW-20kW panel space on his roof for daytime home charging and 40-60kWh of battery if he’s storing the energy for night time charing.. but that’s at least 3-4 years away for us up here in FNQ anyway.

          5. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
            Humanitarian Solar

            As Reality Bites suggested, we need a follow up article in a year, to hear if Madson feels he’s living in energy poverty. What I’m hearing from nakedChimp, is the seven P’s – Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
            With air con, I lived in Cambodia for a year in 92/93 and never saw an air con unit. I imagine that’s how most people in the world live. In Australia, draftsman and architects are retrofitting houses and building new ones for passive solar design. No one can expect to add solar to their energy inefficient house and get a winner.

          6. Ronald Brakels Avatar
            Ronald Brakels

            (Private vehicles average not much more than 40 kilometers a day in Australia, so about 2 kilowatts of PV should suffice to power one.)

          7. nakedChimp Avatar
            nakedChimp

            hehe, on average yes, but I was thinking more along these lines:
            – 2 cars (he and his wife)
            – solar biz boss .. tradie.. lot’s of driving
            – Far North Queensland.. more of lot’s of driving for anyone with a biz that involves visiting mostly rural/semi-rural customers (those are be the ones who need/want off-grid systems first)

          8. Ronald Brakels Avatar
            Ronald Brakels

            Ah, right. I did not pick up on that. Still that’s going to come to something like six hours a day on the road between two people. Might be like taxi drivers who don’t do nearly as many kilometers per shift as one might think..

          9. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
            Humanitarian Solar

            No use sitting on your hands waiting for technology to make it easy for you Reality Bites. You’ve tried to poor water on someone else’s approach. What’s yours? I’d really like to hear examples of your work on this site. If you wait 5 years for technology to make it easy for you it won’t be newsworthy or as important to your community then.

  4. Jacob Avatar
    Jacob

    The Powerwall is very heavy and difficult to hang on the wall.

    This Samsung battery looks like it can be moved around using a forklift.

    So Tesla should offer a plain version of the Powerwall that is not mounted to any wall.

  5. onesecond Avatar
    onesecond

    That must be a very nice feeling to tell your leeching utility to sod off.

  6. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
    Humanitarian Solar

    Most articles in reneweconomy try to use abstract data to raise awareness and achieve environmental goals, the environment needing biodiversity and balance as that which we live in. It is necessary humanity faces environmental challenges head on for its survival and it’s Madson’s achievement and others that will bring an end to old inefficient technology. As the adopter of new technology, Madson is carrying out his purpose to create a death spiral of old technology. When the effect becomes publicly observable and conclusive, politicians and the Courts will need to play their part to ensure efficient cost effective technology is made available to all or degrading public electricity grid/s will see protests and rioting streets and the structure of society becoming unhinged.

    1. MaxG Avatar
      MaxG

      Wouldn’t that be nice… except the masses don’t care 🙁

      1. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
        Humanitarian Solar

        True some folks are so busy paddling hard to survive, their circle of care is limited to themselves or their family. Everyone cares, especially when crisis comes knocking.

  7. Humanitarian Solar Avatar
    Humanitarian Solar

    Discussion Summary:
    Materialists = 3 Samsung units
    Materialists with passive solar architect = 2 Samsung units
    Everybody else = 1 Samsung unit.

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