Empowering Grid Resilience: Stakeholder Insights on Solar Energy Storage

Residential solar adoption in Australia has increased substantially, posing interesting challenges for network providers and consumers. Solar energy storage (SES) is a consumer-driven technology that has emerged due tothe substantial rise in the use of solar energy. Through stakeholder interaction, the study analyzes the function of SES in addressing the issues faced by the electrical network qualitatively. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with important market participants, such as utilities, retailers of electricity, manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, installers, and end users. A total of fifteen interviews were conducted with the participants. The Nvivo14 software’s theme analysis was used to examine the interviews. Based on the results, four primary themes can be identified regarding the effects of greater household solar penetration. Socio-political, regulatory institutional, economic, and technical. The SES helped to mitigate the problems posed by increased solar penetration through promoting technological advancement, and energy independence.