Influence of Efficiency, Aging and Charging Strategy on the Economic Viability and Dimensioning of Photovoltaic Home Storage Systems

PV in combination with Li-ion storage systems can make a major contribution to the energy transition. However, large-scale application will only take place when the systems are economically viable. The profitability of such a system is not only influenced by the investment costs and economic framework conditions, but also by the technical parameters of the storage systems. The paper presents a methodology for the simulation and sizing of PV home storage systems that takes into account the efficiency of the storage systems (AC, DC standby consumption and peripheral consumption, battery efficiency and inverter efficiency), the aging of the components (cyclic and calendar battery aging and PV degradation), and the intelligence of the charging strategy. The developed methodology can be applied to all regions. In this paper, a sensitivity analysis of the influence of the mentioned technical parameters on the dimensioning and profitability of a PV home storage is performed. The calculation is done for Germany. Especially, battery aging, battery inverter efficiency and a charging strategy to avoid calendar aging have a decisive influence. While optimization of most other technical parameters only leads to a cost reduction of 1–3%, more efficient inverters can save up to 5%. Even higher cost reductions (more than 20%) can only be achieved using batteries that age less, especially batteries that are less sensitive to calendar aging. In individual cases, a small improvement in the efficiency of the storage system can also lead to higher costs. This is for example the case when smaller batteries are combined with a large PV system and the battery is used more due to the higher efficiency. This results in faster ageing and thus earlier replacement of the battery. In addition, the paper includes a detailed literature overview on PV home storage system sizing and simulation.