Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Economic and environmental impact of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected

domestic PV systems
Eoghan McKenna a,⇑, Marcelle McManus b, Sam Cooper b, Murray Thomson a
a
Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK

h i g h l i g h t s

" No business case for lossless lead-acid batteries for PV with UK feed-in tariff.
" Business case considerably worse with realistic battery.
" Battery’s negative environmental impact further strengthens argument against use.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Occupants of dwellings with grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems can often benefit financially from
Received 1 October 2012 exporting electricity to the grid. When export prices are lower than import prices, however, occupants are
Received in revised form 6 November 2012 incentivised to time-shift demand in order to avoid exports and reduce imports. To maximise this poten-
Accepted 7 November 2012
tial financial benefit, the addition of batteries to the PV system has been proposed to take advantage of
the specific commercial opportunity presented to the occupant of trading exported power during the day
for imported power during the evening. This paper therefore assesses the economic and environmental
Keywords:
impact of the use of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected PV systems under current feed-in tariff arrange-
Lead-acid battery
PV system
ments in the UK. The development of a lead-acid battery model is described, which is used to simulate
Feed-in tariff hypothetical power flows using measured data on domestic PV systems in the UK. The simulation results
Environmental impact indicate that the net benefit of the battery is negative, even when considering an idealised lossless
battery. When realistic energy losses and lifetimes are accounted for, the financial loss for the systems
considered here can approach £1000/year. The environmental impact of the use and production of the
lead-acid battery is also described, and also found to be negative, further strengthening the argument
against the use of lead-acid batteries in domestic grid-connected PV systems.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The use of batteries in grid-connected domestic PV systems

mentioned in the previous paragraph is investigated in this paper.
There is considerable interest in the use of electrical storage An economic and environmental impact analysis is presented for
technology in low-carbon power systems. At the national trans- the use of lead-acid batteries in PV systems under current feed-
mission system level, large-scale storage could help system balanc- in tariff arrangements in the UK, where the specific commercial
ing with high penetrations of wind power [1]. At the level of the opportunity for the occupant is in reducing exported power during
local distribution network, intelligent management of battery the day, and trading this for a reduction in imported power during
charging in electric vehicles could help prolong the use of existing the evening.
network assets, avoiding unnecessary costs [2]. At the domestic le- The present work builds on previous work by Jenkins [3,6] on
vel, the use of batteries in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) sys- the impact and ageing of lead-acid batteries in grid-connected
tems has been proposed for the purposes of minimising grid domestic PV systems in the UK. The present work, however, differs
exports [3], improving consumer economics by exploiting retail considerably from Jenkins’ work: the economic impact of the bat-
electricity tariffs with variable pricing [4], and increasing self-con- tery for the occupants takes into account current UK feed-in tariff
sumption with feed-in tariffs [5]. arrangements, recorded data is used from multiple domestic
dwellings with PV, a novel battery model is developed, and the
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 (0) 7958 531 842. environmental impacts of the battery are considered. This work
E-mail address: e.j.mckenna@lboro.ac.uk (E. McKenna). also builds on previous work by one of the authors on the environ-

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.11.016
240 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

mental impact of battery production [7], by also considering the in- mised for grid-connected systems, nonetheless it is assumed that
use environmental impacts of the battery for such applications. batteries for these two applications will have broadly similar char-
The approach taken in this paper is to develop a model of a lead- acteristics. Three battery sizes from the PVStor range are consid-
acid battery, which is applied to recorded data from UK dwellings ered, detailed in Table 1. A 48 V battery system has been chosen,
with PV systems. The model is used to simulate hypothetical as this is the voltage level specified for the chosen inverter (de-
power flows for the PV system with battery. Section 3 describes scribed in Section 3.7).
the development of the battery model, and the method used to cal-
culate the simulated power flows, cost benefits, and environmental 3.1. Battery charge and discharge voltage
impacts associated with the battery. Section 4 then presents and
discusses the results of the economic and environmental analysis, Fig. 1A has been adapted from the manufacturer’s data sheet
with Section 5 providing the concluding remarks. and shows battery cell voltage as a function of state of charge for
varying rates of charge and discharge. The top four lines represent
the charge voltages, while the bottom four represent discharge
2. Feed-in tariffs and the financial benefits in time-shifting
voltages. The different currents are indicated by ‘C’ values. C100 re-
demand
fers to a constant current that would fully discharge the battery
over a period of 100 h. For a 430 A h battery, C100 is equal to
This paper considers domestic grid-connected PV systems on a
4.3 A, and C10 is equal to 43 A. For a 210 A h battery, C100 is
current UK feed-in tariff, which consists of a generation price
2.1 A, and so on. C values have the same magnitude for both charg-
(21.0 p/kW h at the time of writing) paid for generated units, and
ing and discharging. The general relationship is as follows:
an export price of 3.2 p/kW h paid for exported units [8]. An import
price of 11.8 p/kW h has been assumed, which is a typical value for C nominal
Cn ¼ ð1Þ
a domestic consumer on a ‘standard’ flat-rate demand tariff [9]. n
In this context, occupants with PV systems can benefit finan-
where n is the discharge time (h), Cn the ‘C’ value for a discharge
cially by using electricity generated by their PV rather than export-
time n (A), and Cnominal is the nominal capacity of the battery.
ing it to the grid [10]. Occupants could typically achieve this by
changing their behaviour or routines in order to shift their demand
3.2. Voltage efficiency
to the middle of the day when their PV is generating [11], for
example by eating a hot meal at lunch rather than dinner, or with
It can be seen from Fig. 1A that, for a given state of charge, the
the help of technology such as timers, that can delay when appli-
rate of discharge has less effect on the voltage compared to the rate
ances are switched on.
of charge. As a result, in the model, the voltage efficiency is applied
A further option available to the occupants, considered here, is
to the charge phase and not the discharge phase. The model there-
the use of battery storage [12]. In the UK context, the battery is
fore estimates the voltage efficiency as a function of the state of
charged during the day using cheap surplus PV generation, and dis-
charge and rate of charge. Fig. 1B shows the voltage efficiency
charged during the evening and night, to avoid the expensive im-
which is estimated here as the ratio of the discharge voltage over
ports from the grid [3]. Note that battery systems of this type are
the charge voltage, taken at the same rate of charge and discharge.
commercially available for this purpose in the UK [13,14].
As expected, efficiencies tend to be lower at high state of charge,
and high currents.
3. Method
3.3. Coulombic efficiency
This section describes a novel method for developing a realistic
lead-acid battery model. The battery model is empirical, using The effect of state of charge on coulombic efficiency is esti-
existing work as input data – the novelty lies in how this data is mated from Stevens [19], which gives empirical data for coulombic
combined in order to create a realistic model. The authors note that efficiency at different states of charge for a valve regulated lead-
there are numerous other approaches to modelling lead-acid bat- acid battery used in PV applications. Coulombic efficiency is de-
teries in PV systems and refer interested readers to [3,15–17]. fined here as amp-hours output over amp-hours input. This data
The model estimates the battery efficiency under varying rates is reproduced in Fig. 2A, and shows the reduction in coulombic effi-
of charge and discharge, as well as varying states of charge. Oper- ciency associated with incremental changes in battery state of
ational energy losses are quantified using the concepts of voltage charge. Stevens only gives data for states of charge above 70%,
efficiency and coulombic, or charge, efficiency. The overall energy though this is sufficient for this battery model because a minimum
efficiency of the battery can be viewed as the product of the bat- state of charge of 60% is used.
tery’s voltage and coulombic efficiencies. Fig. 2A shows that, while coulombic efficiency is high for states
The voltage efficiency reflects the fact that charge is removed of charge below 70%, it decreases considerably as the battery
from a battery at low voltage, while charge is added to it at a higher reaches a fully charged state. Intuitively, this reflects the fact that,
voltage. This difference in charging and discharging voltage inevi- as the battery is charged, it becomes increasingly difficult to charge
tably results in energy losses. it further. Note that Stevens’ experiment only tested a single rate of
Coulombic efficiency reflects the fact that more charge has to be charge and discharge, in this case a value close to the battery’s
put into the battery than it is possible to subsequently remove. nominal discharge rate. In the model, as a matter of choice, the
Coulombic efficiency, in particular, is adversely affected by rapid coulombic efficiency as a function of state of charge is applied to
charging and rapid discharging. Due to the ‘peaky’ nature of the battery charging cycle, though it could equally have been ap-
domestic dwelling demand [18], losses associated with rapid dis- plied on the discharge cycle.
charging will be particularly significant for the application consid- The effect of the rate of discharge is considered independently.
ered in this paper. Finally, both voltage and coulombic efficiency This is estimated from data from the manufacturer describing the
are also reduced at high states of charge [19]. available battery capacity (in A h) as a function of varying rates
The model is based on the data sheet of a BP Solar ‘PVstor’ of discharge [20]. Table 2 reproduces the data for the 430 A h bat-
valve-regulated lead-acid battery [20], which is designed for use tery. This shows that the capacity available is decreased if the bat-
in stand-alone PV systems. While these batteries may not be opti- tery is discharged at higher currents. A second, independent
 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249 241

Table 1
Details of the batteries used in the study.

Battery option 1 Battery option 2 Battery option 3

Capacity 210 A h 430 A h 570 A h
Voltage 48 V 48 V 48 V
Energy capacity 10.08 kW h 20.64 kW h 27.36 kW h
Estimated battery cost £1280 £2621 £3475
Inverter size 2.02 kW 4.13 kW 5.47 kW
Estimated inverter cost £1222 £2502 £3316

Fig. 2. Coulombic efficiency used in the battery model.

voltages and separate converters are more likely to be ‘off the shelf’
components, as well as to avoid losses in the battery before the
units generated by the PV are metered by the generation meter.
Note that a technical comparison of different system configura-
tions is out of scope of this paper.
Battery power flows are then calculated as follows. The battery
is charged when the following conditions are met:
P pv > P d and SOC < SOC max

Fig. 1. Voltage efficiency used in the battery model. The battery is disconnected when either the minimum state of
charge SOCmin (60%) or maximum state of charge SOCmax (100%) is
reached. This constraint has been imposed in order to ensure max-
coulombic efficiency is therefore estimated as the ratio of the imum battery life as per the manufacturer’s recommendations
capacity available at a given discharge rate compared to the capac- [20].
ity available at nominal discharge rate (C100). This is shown as a The battery charging current is then calculated as:
function of discharge current in Fig. 2B for the three battery sizes
considered here. In the model, this coulombic efficiency is applied
ginv ðPd  Ppv Þ
Ibat ¼ ð2Þ
to the discharge phase. When modelled in this way, the round trip V bat
efficiency for a full charge followed by a full discharge at C100 is Charging current is limited to C13 (33 A for a 430 A h battery),
approximately 73%. For C10, the round trip efficiency is 44%. Note based on battery manufacturer’s recommendations [20].
that these round-trip efficiencies are for illustration only – the The charge entering the battery (Qcharge) is then calculated by:
operation of the battery in the model does not use full discharge
Q charge ¼ gv oltage gSOC Ibat t ð3Þ
cycles.
The minus sign is necessary because charging currents are taken
3.4. Calculation of power flows as negative in the model.
State of charge in time interval i is then:
The battery efficiencies described above are then applied to the
SOCðiÞ ¼ SOCði  1Þ þ Q charge ð4Þ
system shown in Fig. 3. This presents a one-line diagram showing
the major electrical components of the PV system with battery The battery is discharged when the following conditions are
storage that is modelled in this paper. A description of the variables met:
used is provided in Table 3. The PV system shown here is fully me-
P pv < P d and SOC > SOC min
tered, as it includes an export meter as well as a generation meter.
Note that the battery is connected via a DC–AC converter to the In which case the battery discharge current is given by:
consumer unit (distribution board), and not connected via DC to
Pbat
the PV, as for example is proposed by Braun et al. [5]. This is for Ibat ¼ ð5Þ
ginv V bat
practical considerations, as the PV and battery have different DC
242 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

Table 2
Discharge characteristics of the 430 A h battery at varying rates of discharge at 25 °C.

Hours for full discharge Discharge current (A) Capacity available (A h) Coulombic efficiency (%)
C0.5 0.5 194.00 97 23
C1 1 110.00 110 26
C2 2 64.00 128 30
C3 3 50.67 152 35
C4 4 39.50 158 37
C5 5 33.20 166 39
C6 6 29.83 179 42
C7 7 27.29 191 44
C8 8 27.13 217 50
C9 9 26.11 235 55
C10 10 25.50 255 59
C25 25 12.32 308 72
C50 50 7.22 361 84
C100 100 4.30 430 100

Fig. 3. One-line diagram of a fully metered PV system with battery storage.

Table 3 3.5. Calculation of economic benefit of battery operation

Description of variables.

Variable Description The operation of the battery will reduce exports and imports.
Ppv PV generation (kW)
The reduction in exports is an opportunity cost to the system own-
Pe PV output exported to grid (kW) er, while the reduction in imports is a benefit due to avoided costs.
Pi Electricity demand imported from the grid (kW) The economic benefit associated with the battery in time interval i,
Pnet = Pe  Pi Dwelling’s net power flow (kW) mnet ðiÞ, is calculated by:
Pd = Ppv  Pnet Consumer electricity demand (kW)
Pbat Power from battery (kW)
Ibat Current from battery (A) mnet ðiÞ ¼ DmðiÞ  DcðiÞ ð8Þ
Vbat Battery voltage (V)
SOC Battery state of charge (%) where Dm(i) is the change in income to the occupant in time inter-
ginv Battery inverter efficiency
val i associated with the battery. This is the difference between the
gvoltage Battery voltage efficiency
gSOC Battery coulombic efficiency due to state of charge income to the occupant associated with generation and export pay-
gdischarge Battery coulombic efficiency due to rate of discharge ments with the battery and the equivalent income without the bat-
t Time (h) tery. For example, if the battery reduced exports in time interval i,
then Dm(i) would be negative.
Dc(i) is the change in costs to the occupant in time interval i
Discharge current is limited to C5 (86 A for a 430 A h battery), associated with the battery. This is the difference between the cost
again based on manufacturer’s recommendations. The charge leav- of electricity consumed within the dwelling with the battery com-
ing the battery (Qdischarge) is then given by: pared to the equivalent cost of electricity without the battery. For
example, if the battery reduced imports in time interval i, then
Ibat t
Q discharge ¼ ð6Þ Dc(i) would be negative, as costs would be reduced.
gdischarge The estimate of the total economic benefit of the battery (not
State of charge in time interval i is given by: including equipment costs) is then given by the sum of mnet over
the course of a whole year for the dwellings described in the fol-
SOCðiÞ ¼ SOCði  1Þ  Q discharge ð7Þ lowing section.
 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249 243

3.6. Description of data used in the analysis battery. While a full Life Cycle Assessment was not undertaken, a
life cycle approach was taken, following the ISO Standards
In Fig. 3, power flows denoted with an asterisk indicate where [27,28]. This was done using SimaPro software, and was originally
recorded data on domestic dwellings with installed PV in the UK described by McManus [7]. Three environmental issues have been
has been used from the Photovoltaic Domestic Field Trial (‘‘DFT’’) assessed; the impact on greenhouse gases (GHGs), fossil fuel deple-
[21]. The battery model is used to simulate hypothetical power tion, and metal depletion. These were analysed using both IPCC
flows given the addition of a battery to the systems. In the model, data and the ‘Recipe’ LCA methodology [29]. The work has focused
the dwelling demands and PV generation are unchanged from on these three areas as previous research has shown these are
those of the DFT systems. The resolution of the data is 5 min. some of the major impact areas for battery use and production
The study uses data from two of the Domestic Field Trail’s sites. [7]. In addition, GHG and fossil fuel depletion are major policy driv-
The first site consists of data from 22 dwellings, and the second site ers within the energy arena, and the impact of metal depletion has
consists of data from 15 dwellings. Annual irradiances for the two been widely discussed as a potential area for concern associated
sites were 894.7 kW h/m2, and 892.8 kW h/m2, which are quite with the use and production of batteries [30].
typical for the UK [22]. The production impacts of lead-acid batteries per kg of battery
Note that the sizes of PV systems installed in the dwellings con- weight in terms of greenhouse gases, metal depletion, and fossil
sidered here range between 1.5 kWpeak and 3.29 kWpeak, while re- fuel depletion are 0.9 kg CO2eq, 0.4 kg Feeq, and 0.3 kg oileq respec-
cent installations in the UK are closer to 4 kWpeak. The applicability tively [7]. The contribution to greenhouse gases and fossil fuel is
of the results to more modern systems will be discussed in the predominantly associated with the extraction and processing of
results. lead and the polypropylene used in the battery production. The
contribution to metal depletion is dominated by the lead within
3.7. Battery inverter the battery. Note that this approach assumes a mix of virgin and
recycled materials is used in the battery production, based current
The battery inverter is based on the SMA Sunny Backup 5000 norms, as described by McManus [7].
[13], which includes battery charge regulator and power electronic
converter. The efficiency of the inverter is modelled on the effi-
ciency curve provided in this product’s manual. The inverter has 3.9.2. In-use impacts
a peak efficiency of 95.4% and efficiency of more than 91% through- The in-use impact of the batteries is associated with the time-
out most of its operating range. Note that this efficiency applies to varying environmental impact of grid-electricity [31]. From the
charging as well as discharging. The inverters are sized for the perspective of the national grid, the effect of adding a battery to
maximum discharge current of the batteries multiplied by the bat- a PV system (where previously there was none) is to increase de-
tery voltage, giving the inverter sizes shown in Table 1. mand during the day, when the battery is charging, and to decrease
demand during the evening, when the battery is discharging. These
3.8. Cost and lifetime of equipment changes in demand throughout the course of the day will result in
corresponding changes in generation from fossil fuel plant. More-
Costs were estimated as the cost of the equipment (battery and over, due to losses in the battery it can be expected that the in-
battery inverter) divided by its expected lifetime. Battery costs crease in daytime generation will be greater than the
have been estimated at $200/kWh from a Sandia National Labora- corresponding decrease in generation during the evening, meaning
tories Report [23]. The cost of the battery inverter has been that the battery will cause a net increase in fossil fuel generation,
estimated at £606/kW, based on lowest of three quotes for ‘SMA with a resulting negative environmental impact.
Sunny Backup systems’ produced from an internet search [24– To calculate how the changes in demand throughout the day
26]. The Sunny Backup has been chosen as it is a battery inverter associated with adding the battery to the PV system can be ex-
that is currently commercially available and designed for the pected to result in changes in generation from fossil fuel plant, data
purposes in hand. Table 1 shows the inverter sizes for the three from the UK balancing mechanism reports [32] was used to calcu-
batteries considered here. late the ‘responsiveness’ of gas and coal generation to historic
Inverter lifetime was assumed to be 10 years. Battery lifetime is changes in demand for each 5 min period in 2009–2011. Respon-
estimated from Jenkins’ design equation, which estimates the use- siveness here refers to the change in generation (in kW h) that is
ful lifetime for lead-acid batteries in grid-connected residential PV associated with a change in demand of 1 kW h.
systems as a function of the battery size and usage [6], as follows: For some time periods, a calculated responsiveness was unchar-
acteristically high or low due to operators switching from one
329:9  S plant type to another. To compensate for this effect, time periods
T¼ ð9Þ
Ee were grouped into 144 sets (one for each hour of the day for each
where T is the estimated battery lifetime (years), Ee is the annual ex- 2-month period of the year) and the weighted average responsive-
ports available from the PV system (kW h/year), and S is the battery ness of each plant type was calculated for each set. The average
capacity (kW h). was weighted by the absolute value of the change in total genera-
tion during each time period (Eq. (10)). The resulting values for the
3.9. Environmental impact responsiveness of coal and gas plant are provided for reference in
Appendix A.
The environmental impact is considered in two areas: produc-   "  !#
tion impacts, and in-use impacts. For both of these, the analysis DPgen X
hn
DPgen ðiÞ X
hn
¼ jDPtotal ðiÞj= jDPtotal ðiÞj ð10Þ
compares the impact associated with adding a battery to the PV Deltaptotal h i¼h1
DPtotal ðiÞ i¼1
systems considered here, compared to the same PV systems with-
out battery.  
DP gen
where Deltaptotal
is the weighted average responsiveness of electric-
h
3.9.1. Production impacts ity generated by coal or gas plant to unit changes in total electrical
The production impact of lead acid batteries was determined by demand during the time periods in set h (h1 to hn), DPgen(i) the
examining the processes and materials contained within the increase in average electrical power generation from gas or coal
244 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

generating plant during period i, Ptotal,(i) is the increase in average

electrical power generation for whole electrical grid during period i.
The net change in generation from coal and gas is then calcu-
lated by multiplying the weighted average responsiveness for gas
and coal generation for each 5 min time step by the net change
in demand associated with adding the battery to the PV system,
and summing these over the entire year (Eq. (11)). The net change
in demand is determined by the battery model described above.
"  #
Xn
DPgen ðiÞ
DEgen ¼ DPnet ðiÞt ð11Þ
i¼1
DP total ðiÞ

where DEgen is the total net change in electricity generated from a

type of generating plant (gas or coal) for periods 1 to n and DPnet(i)
is the net change in electrical demand in time period i due to bat-
tery operation (compared to PV system without battery).
Environmental impacts in the three areas considered for pro-
duction are then calculated by multiplying the total net changes
in fossil fuel generation by the impact data shown in Table 4. These
values were calculated using a life cycle approach using SimaPro
software based on data from EcoInvent [33].

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Battery operation for a single system over a single day

Fig. 4. PV generation, dwelling demand, net power flow to the grid, before and after
The following results demonstrate the operation of the battery battery.
over a single day, illustrating the battery’s effect on the dwelling’s
net power flow, along with the resulting battery efficiencies, and
the financial benefit to the occupant. is avoided. Fig. 6B shows the cumulative benefit for the day, indi-
Fig. 4A shows the demand profile for a single dwelling with a cating that there was a modest benefit at the end of the day of
3.29 kWp PV system on the 15th June 2006 from the DFT dataset 10 p. Note this does not consider equipment costs, which are con-
[21]. Note that the high demand between 00:00 and 03:00 is likely sidered in the following section.
due to electric water heating. The net dwelling power flow to the
grid is shown in Fig. 4B with and without battery. The battery
starts the day at minimum state of charge because it was used 4.2. Cost benefit using realistic battery model
the previous evening, so the net power flow is unchanged through-
out the morning. At around 07:00, the PV generation starts to ex- The previous figures showed the effect of the battery over a sin-
ceed the dwelling’s demand, and the battery starts charging. This gle day for a single dwelling, and this section extends this to in-
reduces the net power flow to zero throughout most of the day. clude data from multiple systems from the DFT dataset over the
A small amount of power is still exported, however, when the sur- course of a whole year. Data for 37 individual dwellings is consid-
plus current from the PV exceeds the maximum charge current of ered, corresponding to the two Domestic Field Trial sites men-
the battery. At around 17:00, the dwelling demand exceeds PV tioned in Section 3.6.
generation, and the battery discharges. The net power flow reduces Fig. 7 shows how the realistic battery results in reductions in
to zero, until approximately 23:00 when the battery reaches its imports from the grid and reductions in exports to the grid, for
minimum state of charge, and is disconnected. the systems and batteries considered here. The reduction in im-
Battery state of charge and efficiency is shown in Fig. 5. The in- ports are smaller than the reduction in exports, due to losses in
verter efficiency, not shown here, remains relatively high (95%) the battery. The gradient of the lines that pass through the data
throughout the day. The battery charging efficiency and discharg- points gives an indication of how many units of exported electric-
ing efficiency are shown separately in Fig. 5B. As the battery state ity are used to provide one unit of avoided imported electricity. A
of charge increases during the day the charging efficiency falls least squares fit through the data results in gradients of 2.14
from 80% to 50%. In the evening, the discharge efficiency is (0.0482), 2.29 (0.0575), and 2.83 (0.0698) for the 570 A h, 430
determined by the rate of discharge, and drops below 50% on a A h, and 210 A h batteries respectively (standard errors in brack-
number of occasions. ets). These gradients can be compared to the ratio of the import
The cost benefit of the battery operation is shown in Fig. 6A. price to the export price, 11.8/3.2 = 3.69. Provided the gradient is
There is a negative benefit throughout the middle of the day, asso- smaller than the import export price ratio, then the batteries can
ciated with the opportunity cost of reducing exports. This is fol- be expected to produce a benefit in terms of savings on electricity
lowed by a positive benefit in the evening as imported electricity bills.

Table 4
Environmental impact of coal and gas generation.

Climate change (kg CO2eq) Metal depletion (kg Feeq) Fossil fuel depletion (kg oileq)
For 1 kW h electricity from gas generation 0.484 1.01  103 0.198
For 1 kW h electricity from coal generation 1.08 3.99  103 0.291
 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249 245

Fig. 7. Reduction in imports and exports associated with realistic batteries of

various sizes for multiple dwellings with PV in the UK.

Fig. 5. Battery state of charge and efficiency.

Fig. 8. Annual benefits for lossless and realistic batteries for multiple dwellings
Fig. 6. Cost benefit over the course of a single day. with PV in the UK.

Fig. 8 shows the resulting annual benefits to the occupants of of the battery inverter over the total energy into the battery inverter.
the dwellings considered here, in terms of reduced costs of elec- The mean round trip efficiency values are 39.1% for the 210 A h bat-
tricity, for the three sizes of realistic batteries (black markers). tery, 53.0% for the 430 A h battery, and 58.5% for the 570 A h battery.
The x-axis shows annual exports for the PV system without bat- Fig. 10 shows annualised equipment costs for the realistic bat-
tery, as the main purpose of the battery is to reduce these exports. tery (black markers), which can reach £1000/year for the larger
The benefits are low – for the larger systems shown here, which are systems considered here. The costs increase with available exports,
comparable to modern 4 kWpeak PV systems, the benefits of a bat- which reflects the reduction in battery lifetimes associated with
tery might amount to £30/year. battery wear, shown in Fig. 9B. Systems with high exports result
The low benefits shown in Fig. 8 are due to the battery inefficien- in greater battery wear, and shorter lifetimes. For large systems,
cies which are shown in Fig. 9A. This shows annual round-trip effi- comparable to modern 4 kWpeak PV systems, a 570 A h battery
ciencies for the different dwellings and battery size configurations. has an expected lifetime of 5.23 years, dropping to 1.93 years for
The round-trip efficiency is calculated here as the total energy out a 210 A h battery.
246 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

counter-productive for some systems. Alternative operating condi-

tions or strategies could therefore be considered in order to opti-
mise the system and reduce operational losses. In order to show
that the cost benefit results shown in Fig. 11 are robust, however,
and not contingent on assumptions regarding battery efficiencies,
equipment lifetimes, or operating strategy, this section considers
the cost benefit for a lossless battery and inverter that are both
100% efficient.
In keeping with the assumption of a lossless battery, the battery
is also assumed not to experience any wear, and as such there is no
effect on costs associated with increasing annual exports (an indi-
cation of how much the battery is used). Equipment lifetimes are
therefore optimistic: 20 years for the battery, and 10 years for
the inverter. This results in annualised costs of £186.2/year,
£381.2/year, and £505.3/year for the 210 A h, 430 A h, and
570 A h battery systems respectively. These are illustrated for com-
parison alongside the realistic battery costs in Fig. 10. Note that the
minimum state of charge for the lossless battery is kept the same
as that for the realistic battery (60%).
The annual benefits for a perfectly efficient battery are shown in
Fig. 8 (grey markers) alongside the benefits for the realistic battery,
for the same dwellings and battery sizes. For the lossless battery, it
can be seen that the annual benefit increases along with the
available exports. Larger batteries increase the benefit for larger
systems with more exports, but have little effect on the smaller
systems. The data for benefits shows that a lossless battery can
result in bill savings of up to £110/year.
Fig. 11 shows the resulting net benefit of the lossless battery
(grey markers), again alongside the equivalent net benefits of the
Fig. 9. Battery round-trip efficiency and lifetime. realistic battery (black markers). It is clear that the costs are con-
siderably larger than the benefits for all of the systems considered
Fig. 11 finally shows the resulting annual net benefit associated here, even when assuming a lossless battery with optimistic life-
with the realistic battery (black markers), which illustrates that time estimates. The battery results in a net financial loss to the
there is no economic case for the use of lead-acid batteries for occupant of around £100/year for the smallest lossless battery,
the systems and specific purposes considered here. increasing to over £400/year for the largest lossless battery consid-
ered here. It appears therefore that there is no economic case for
4.3. Cost benefit for a lossless battery the use of lead-acid batteries for the systems and specific commer-
cial opportunity considered here, even for idealised lossless batter-
Fig. 9A illustrates that the operating conditions (specifically the ies with optimistic lifetimes.
charge and discharge current limits) imposed here can result in Note that these results ignore the cost of any routine mainte-
battery efficiencies that are very low indeed – to the point of being nance, the cost of installation, or indeed any discount rates applied

Fig. 10. Annual costs for lossless and realistic batteries for multiple UK dwellings Fig. 11. Annual net benefits for lossless and realistic batteries for multiple
with PV. dwellings with PV in the UK.
 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249 247

Table 5
– Battery weights and production impacts.

Battery Capacity Weight per cell Number of cells in Total battery weight Production impacts
(A h) (kg) battery (kg)
Climate change Metal depletion Fossil fuel depletion
(kg CO2eq) (kg Feeq) (kg oileq)
210 38 8 304 273.6 121.6 91.2
420 29 24 696 626.4 278.4 208.8
570 37 24 888 799.2 355.2 266.4

4 kWpeak PV system. Not unexpectedly, metal depletion impact is

dominated by battery production, while climate change and fossil
fuel depletion impacts are dominated by battery use.
The mean in-use impact values for the lossless 430 A h battery
are shown for comparison in Table 6. As there are no energy losses
with this battery, these values can be interpreted as the impacts
associated with the lossless time-shifting of demand from the
evening to the day. The difference between the in-use impacts
for the lossless battery and those for the realistic battery can there-
fore be interpreted as the environmental impacts due to energy
losses in the battery, which are two orders of magnitude greater
than those associated with shifting demand from the evening to
the day.
To put these results into perspective, the total annual climate
change impact for this battery has an equivalent impact in terms
of kg CO2eq/year as driving 4362 km in a ‘good’ (180 g CO2eq/km)
UK petrol vehicle [33]. Alternatively, using the same assumptions
regarding responsiveness of fossil fuel plant as detailed in Sec-
Fig. 12. Change in fossil fuel generation caused by the operation of a realistic tion 3.9.2, it can also be equated to an average 2009 UK household
430 A h battery averaged over the whole year and the multiple dwellings
(4460 kW h/year) increasing annual electricity consumption by
considered here.
946 kW h, an increase of 21%.
to future benefits. If included, these would obviously worsen the
business case. 4.5. Target capital costs

The theoretical maximum benefit to the occupants considered

4.4. Environmental impact here is 11.8 p/kW h–3.2 p/kW h = 8.6 p per kW h of otherwise ex-
ported electricity. The mean annual exports for the 37 systems
The production impacts for the batteries considered in this pa- considered here was 605 kW h/year, which gives a theoretical
per are shown in Table 5. This production impact is spread over the maximum benefit of £52 per dwelling per year. Assuming a modest
lifetime of the batteries in use, as estimated by Eq. (9), and illus- discount factor of 4% over 20 years, this results in a target up-front
trated in Fig. 9B. capital cost of £707 for the battery system to break even. To put
Regarding the in-use impacts, the resulting change in fossil fuel this into perspective, note that the cheapest battery system consid-
generation over the course of the day associated with the operation ered here (210 A h with optimistic lifetimes) has an equivalent up-
of a realistic 430 A h battery is shown in Fig. 12. The values for the front capital cost of £3296.
change in fossil fuel generation are averages for all of the dwellings
considered here over the course of the whole year. It can be seen 4.6. Comparison with feed-in tariffs from other countries
that the battery operation results in an increase in fossil fuel gen-
eration during the day, and a decrease in the evening and night. It The present study has considered the use of batteries with UK
can be seen that the area above zero is considerably greater than feed-in tariffs, where the price differential between export price
the area below zero, which can be attributed to energy losses in and import price is 8.6 p/kW h as mentioned above. The results
the battery. It is interesting to note that these results show that are, however, relevant more generally to other countries with
coal plant is more responsive to changes in demand than gas plant. feed-in tariffs that have lower export prices than typical import
The combined annual production and in-use impacts are now prices.
considered. Table 6 shows the combined impacts associated with In Germany, for example, a typical domestic system installed in
adding a 430 A h battery to a 3.29 kWpeak PV system. These results 2011 will have an export price of 29 c€/kW h and a ‘self-con-
are comparable to the case of adding a battery to a modern sumption payment’ of 17 c€/kW h for electricity produced by

Table 6
Annual production and in-use impacts for 430 A h battery with 3.29 kWpeak PV system. Standard deviations shown in brackets.

Climate Change (kg CO2eq/year) Metal depletion (kg Feeq/year) Fossil fuel depletion (kg oileq/year)
Production impacts 127.5 (26.2) 56.6 (11.6) 42.5 (8.7)
In-use impacts 657.7 (137.3) 2.2 (0.5) 201.7 (41.9)
Total 785.1 58.8 244.2
In-use impacts (lossless battery) 5.09 (2.35) 0.0255 (0.0188) 0.79 (0.36)
248 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249

the PV and consumed within the dwelling [34]. The result is an Western Australia [37]. These states have feed-in tariffs with ex-
‘effective export price’ of 29 c€/kW h–17 c€/kW h = 12 c€/kW h, port prices of 8 cAUD/kW h, which is 17 cAUD/kW h (10.93 p/
which is 8 c€/kW h cheaper than a typical import price of 20 c/ kW h) less than a typical import price of 25 cAUD/kW h. The im-
kW h. This results in an import export price ratio of 20/12 = 1.67. port export price ratio is therefore 3.13, which is again lower than
As described in Section 4.2, the minimum ratio needed to result the UK price ratio (3.69). The results of this paper are therefore also
in a benefit is 2.14 (for the 570 A h battery). Considering that applicable to Australian PV systems installed from late 2012
Germany has a solar resource that is not dissimilar to that of the onwards.
UK [22], it would appear that the present study’s conclusions Finally, note that this paper has only considered the economic
concerning the lack of business case for batteries in grid-connected benefit to the occupant associated with the use of the battery given
PV systems is also applicable to Germany. current feed-in tariff arrangements. It is quite possible however
The findings are also relevant to PV systems installed from late that there are additional economic benefits associated with this
2012 in the Australian states of Queensland [35], Victoria [36], and type of distributed storage, in particular to other stakeholders

Table 7
Weighted average change in electricity generated by coal to unit changes in total electrical demand in GB electricity market (data from 2009 to 2011).

Hour of day Period of year

0 1 2 3 4 5
0 0.494551 0.455457 0.437542 0.393212 0.396758 0.478689
1 0.496866 0.469524 0.422298 0.368692 0.399714 0.510903
2 0.500799 0.464754 0.440178 0.385595 0.398715 0.50572
3 0.5489 0.432157 0.36836 0.363328 0.379169 0.514606
4 0.566476 0.474136 0.452927 0.398794 0.502077 0.475355
5 0.567946 0.555243 0.506174 0.460635 0.586774 0.559716
6 0.52664 0.61185 0.618944 0.569299 0.627499 0.574908
7 0.562577 0.617038 0.579624 0.585671 0.580824 0.606942
8 0.54072 0.586075 0.558954 0.557762 0.613838 0.544663
9 0.54419 0.550934 0.515535 0.533581 0.532024 0.556299
10 0.527202 0.490187 0.522915 0.53868 0.542271 0.522832
11 0.484315 0.562545 0.556201 0.550072 0.541937 0.53242
12 0.491218 0.598059 0.557904 0.556898 0.547817 0.499456
13 0.496241 0.604643 0.587941 0.534845 0.570576 0.512185
14 0.527025 0.59763 0.582466 0.550426 0.587472 0.512683
15 0.466498 0.604244 0.556948 0.531664 0.564756 0.505471
16 0.509246 0.580713 0.590093 0.573185 0.59181 0.540284
17 0.537683 0.611151 0.6338 0.607297 0.608505 0.51186
18 0.53161 0.630377 0.637861 0.602651 0.62768 0.54301
19 0.544557 0.57606 0.58905 0.586922 0.662873 0.477636
20 0.543458 0.637469 0.565202 0.567295 0.638235 0.51867
21 0.494102 0.650307 0.600947 0.592812 0.636466 0.560413
22 0.518938 0.579318 0.482388 0.492356 0.537305 0.601915
23 0.51428 0.481071 0.452315 0.390059 0.452874 0.556961

Table 8
Weighted average response in electricity generated by gas (CCGT) to unit changes in total electrical demand in GB electricity market (data from 2009 to 2011).

Hour of day Period of year

0 1 2 3 4 5
0 0.505449 0.544543 0.562458 0.606788 0.603242 0.521311
1 0.503134 0.530476 0.577702 0.631308 0.600286 0.489097
2 0.499201 0.535246 0.559822 0.614405 0.601285 0.49428
3 0.4511 0.567843 0.63164 0.636672 0.620831 0.485394
4 0.433524 0.525864 0.547073 0.601206 0.497923 0.524645
5 0.432054 0.444757 0.493826 0.539365 0.413226 0.440284
6 0.47336 0.38815 0.381056 0.430701 0.372501 0.425092
7 0.437423 0.382962 0.420376 0.414329 0.419176 0.393058
8 0.45928 0.413925 0.441046 0.442238 0.386162 0.455337
9 0.45581 0.449066 0.484465 0.466419 0.467976 0.443701
10 0.472798 0.509813 0.477085 0.46132 0.457729 0.477168
11 0.515685 0.437455 0.443799 0.449928 0.458063 0.46758
12 0.508782 0.401941 0.442096 0.443102 0.452183 0.500544
13 0.503759 0.395357 0.412059 0.465155 0.429424 0.487815
14 0.472975 0.40237 0.417534 0.449574 0.412528 0.487317
15 0.533502 0.395756 0.443052 0.468336 0.435244 0.494529
16 0.490754 0.419287 0.409907 0.426815 0.40819 0.459716
17 0.462317 0.388849 0.3662 0.392703 0.391495 0.48814
18 0.46839 0.369623 0.362139 0.397349 0.37232 0.45699
19 0.455443 0.42394 0.41095 0.413078 0.337127 0.522364
20 0.456542 0.362531 0.434798 0.432705 0.361765 0.48133
21 0.505898 0.349693 0.399053 0.407188 0.363534 0.439587
22 0.481062 0.420682 0.517612 0.507644 0.462695 0.398085
23 0.48572 0.518929 0.547685 0.609941 0.547126 0.443039
 E. McKenna et al. / Applied Energy 104 (2013) 239–249 249

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