Li-ion battery storage in private households with PV systems: Analyzing the economic impacts of battery aging and pooling

This paper investigates the economic viability of Li-ion battery storage for households, taking into account the economic costs of battery aging and the gains from battery pooling concepts. To this end, a techno-economic model is proposed that enables to quantify the increase in self-consumption of electricity from a solar photovoltaic system by means of a home battery storage system. Regarding battery aging, we find that the longest battery lifetimes can be achieved with the highest state-of-charge limit, which is, however, not economically preferable due to limited self-consumption. Three pooling concepts presently promoted in Germany are studied as well (Sonnen, Caterva, Fenecon). Although one of the three battery pooling concepts was identified as not being economical, namely the case of Sonnen, our evaluation shows that profitability can, in principle, be achieved with home battery pooling concepts. We find that the battery lifetime varies greatly from 11.6-26.5 years, depending on the state-of-charge limits set, with important economic implications on the overall cost effectiveness, and that the level of self-consumption of PV power is about 67.5% in the reference case, compared to 59.4-66.4% for the three battery pooling models analyzed.