prosumer – Schoemann

The shift over to the “All electric society” is easiest in sunny states like California in the USA, Africa or Southern Europe. For other regions of the globe not only the production of energy through the sun is a bit less abundant, but the storage of the sun’s energy production for deferred use is the next challenge. Countries of the globe near the equator have to balance 12 hours daylight with 12 hours night, countries far from the equator have to balance additionally more long-term between short winter days and long summer light.
Different energy storage solutions have to be envisaged.
On a daily basis or even weekly basis, battery energy storage systems (BESS) can do the trick. These systems become more costly for high capacity, longer duration storage. Battery size and price quickly become an issue. The number of electric vehicles (EVs) that have this more intelligent BESS is rising. This makes it possible to eventually use this storage capacity, if your car is sitting around your home or office for most of the time anyway. To make the “all electric society” function 24 hours, energy storage has to be planned at the same time as production and consumption patterns. The all electric prosumer will be the de-central “pro-store-sumer” in the 21^st century.

Energy production and consumption in a home are determined by many factors. The number of persons in a household has, of course, a considerable impact on consumption patterns. The investment in home energy production can cover the basics, but is less likely to cover peaks of consumption like friends on a visit wanting to charge their electric vehicle.
In a test with a simple small scale solar panel (fixed on a balcony for example with 860W peak) it was possible to produce a full days consumption on a sunny summer day for a 1-2 person household without use of electricity for personal mobility, but hot water through heat pump provision. The potential for an own production of electricity during summer months is within reach without major behavioral changes.
Okay, digital steering of energy consumption for hot water during hours of bright sunshine and washing machine around high noon are not for everybody to program or carry through.
Digital tools complement the energy consumption at the right time. There is a lot of power in sunshine. The usual caveats of bad weather and winter months change the calculations. The return on investment or break even point needs 300 days of about 2 kWh to recover the 500€ initial costs of the solar panels. After about 3 years the initial costs are recovered and savings begin to accrue. The bridge between energy theory and practical applications is to be found in experimental setups and tests of different scenarios for the modern “prosumer” of the 21^st century.