As electricity providers grapple with significant demand growth in the years ahead, customer-sited distributed energy resources (DERs), like rooftop solar and battery storage, are set to play an increasingly important role in maintaining grid reliability and resiliency.
Accordingly, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) recently conducted the “Shining a Light on Solar + Storage: Consumer Interest and Expectations” survey to better understand how American homeowners view these technologies, where they turn for information, who they trust to install systems, what factors drive their interest and more.
In this month’s blog, we share three key findings from this new nationally representative survey that highlight how homeowners feel about becoming “prosumers”:
1. Homeowners have a range of motivations for installing solar panels.
Half of U.S. homeowners have taken an action to explore solar panels for their home, like conducting research online or receiving a quote from an installer. So, what’s driving this interest? The new survey found that it’s a combination of financial, environmental and reliability factors. Predictably, saving money on electricity over time leads the way at 59 percent among those who have rooftop solar and 32 percent among all other homeowners in the sample. The next three motivators are also the same for both groups of respondents: using a renewable energy source (45 and 24 percent), improving the resiliency of their homes (44 and 22 percent) and increasing the value of their homes (41 and 21 percent, respectively).
2. Homeowners heavily favor their electricity providers’ involvement.
In the new Snapshot Survey, we also asked respondents who they would prefer to install the panels if they were to get rooftop solar system at home, and it was clear that U.S. homeowners want their electricity providers to be involved in the process. A plurality of respondents (39 percent) said that they wanted a company recommended to them by their electricity provider, while the next largest group (31 percent) wants their electricity provider to directly install the panels. Only nine percent of survey respondents wanted a third-party company that is not associated with their provider, and a significant cohort (21 percent) said that they were not sure who should install the system.
3. Most homeowners would participate in a solar-plus-storage program.
Lithium-ion battery systems are increasingly being paired with solar panels, which is significantly amplifying the benefits to both homeowners and the grid. In the final survey question, we asked respondents to imagine a scenario where their electricity provider installs a solar-plus-storage system at their home with little to no upfront cost. When electricity demand is high, their provider would draw energy from the battery system to support the grid, and they would be compensated for this electricity. Would homeowners participate in such a program? We found that this was an emphatic “yes”. Two-thirds of respondents without rooftop solar would be either somewhat or very likely to participate, while 77 percent of those with solar said they would be likely to participate.
As the survey results show, U.S. homeowners are increasingly open to adopting rooftop solar and battery storage, particularly when their electricity providers play a trusted, active role. This interest comes at an inflection point for the energy industry when DERs are set to play a greater role than ever before in enhancing grid performance.