Solar + storage for your home

Clean energy from your roof has now become a realistic opportunity for every Bermuda homeowner

Solar power has expanded rapidly in Bermuda, with hundreds of homes and businesses having invested in solar energy and thousands more ready to join them.

AES leads the way in the clean energy revolution in Bermuda with more solar PV capacity installed than all other local providers combined. It has been responsible for the very largest commercial installations as well as more than 130 homes.

Its installation at Dockyard for WEDCO is the largest on the island, followed closely by Gorham’s, Lindo’s, and Gosling’s — all AES projects. Other major AES installations include Saltus, BELCO, Greybar Building (Mill Creek), Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, many gas stations, RBYC, RHADC, The General Post Office and the Government Administration Building.

AES is also the chosen provider for residential properties, with many Bermudian homeowners choosing to tap into the proven cost savings of solar energy provided by AES. Its installations cover the whole island, from east to west, from small installations on the roofs of cottages and modest homes, to larger properties and grand mansions.

“Our solar installations are scalable, so whether you own a smaller property and your BELCO bill is around $200 a month, or a larger home with a correspondingly larger BELCO bill, it still makes sense to install solar” , explains Tim Madeiros, Founder and CEO of AES. “The average house consumes about 30kw hours a day, and we can generate enough energy through our solar installations on a typical Bermuda roof to provide that, and more”

And a solar battery can greatly increase the efficiency and versatility of your solar setup. Your solar panels generate energy during the day, which can then be stored in your solar batteries to power your home during the night.

For example, AES can install eight solar panels and a 10kw battery in your house and eliminate that $200 BELCO bill. Or 40 solar panels and a 40kw battery and eliminate a $2,000 bill.

AES is the official agent for the best and most popular batteries on the market: Sonnen, Tesla’s Powerwall, and Enphase storage. “Maximum solar energy is generated during the day” points out Madeiros, “but typically, families use the most energy in the evenings and at night, when they are cooking, heating water for showering, using the water pump, air conditioning, entertainment units and so forth. During the day, excess energy can be sold back to BELCO at .22 cents a kw. But at night, when you’re not generating solar energy and consume from BELCO’s grid, you are buying it back at .52 cents a kw. So, it makes sense to store the energy during the day for use at night. When the batteries are fully charged, you can still export excess energy to BELCO. So, you are generating power during the day, storing it in your battery and using that power at night”

But what happens if the battery becomes depleted during the night when the solar panels are not generating power? “In that case” , explains Madeiros, “BELCO power from the grid will kick in to supplement any additional power you may need, and take over from the battery. When the sun comes up in the morning, solar will take over again, to power the house and recharge the battery” .

For those that want to live completely off the grid, a generator can be installed for when the battery is depleted, and you don’t want to draw power from the grid. A mechanism can be installed to automatically activate the generator. If at some point during the night your battery becomes depleted because of the amount of electricity you are using, then a battery will start up the generator automatically, and the generator will top up the battery.

Madeiros points out that there are four possible sources of energy. “There’s solar, battery, generator and BELCO. And it’s perfectly feasible to install the first three, and completely eliminate the fourth” .

The increase in the number of electric vehicles in Bermuda is also fueling the growth of solar plus battery installations for AES. “For electric vehicle owners, a battery is particularly useful, because when you come home in the evening, that’s when you plug in your car. Solar will produce energy during the day, store it in your home’s battery, and then at night you put it in your car. And with the price of gas at the pump, it really does pay off economically”