How Many Commercial Energy Storage Systems Does It Take to Power a Factory?

Commercial energy storage systems store solar energy for commercial facilities to utilize later. If you are thinking about converting your entire factory to solar energy, you may be wondering just how many solar panels you will need and/or how many energy storage boxes you will need. Here are some helpful hints to figure out what you will need.

Total Square Footage of Your Factory

Since the majority of your factory requires constant lighting and electricity, it helps to know its square footage. The square footage will then be plugged into an algorithm that tells the solar energy installation technicians how many solar panels you'll need. One standard rectangular panel collects enough solar energy to power a mid-sized home for a day. If your factory's square footage equals twenty times that number, then you would need twenty panels.

Kilowatt Hours You Typically Use Per Hour

Solar energy is converted into electricity via a conversion box (you will need several of these too). To calculate the amount of electricity you need to operate your factory every day, you only need to consult your electrical power company. Ask them for the total kilowatt hours for the last month, and then divide by thirty and again by twenty-four. That should give you the kilowatt hours per hour which your factory uses. Note days when you have overages over this average, as that will also come into play when connecting your energy storage system boxes.

Number of Panels That Can Be Connected to the Commercial Energy Storage Boxes

Most commercial energy storage boxes have limitations on the number of solar panels you can connect to them. It varies with the size of the box, but for the sake of argument, let's say that each box can collect and reserve energy from five panels. If you have twenty panels on your factory roof, you will need five energy storage boxes. However, the storage boxes only store energy you have not yet used. If you know for a fact that your factory will use almost all of the energy collected every day, you may only need one or two energy storage boxes to contain your solar energy overflow. 

Thankfully, you do not have to do any of these calculations yourself. An installation technician like those at iDemand Energy Storage can do them for you, so long as you have collected the information regarding square footage and kilowatts per hour used. 

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