{"id":365,"date":"2025-09-05T07:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/?p=365"},"modified":"2025-09-05T07:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:10:30","slug":"smarter-solar-why-sharing-excess-energy-with-neighbours-delivers-higher-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/smarter-solar-why-sharing-excess-energy-with-neighbours-delivers-higher-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Smarter Solar: Why Sharing Excess Energy With Neighbours Delivers Higher Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rooftop-homes.webp\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Solar Sharing\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rooftop-homes.webp 800w, https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rooftop-homes-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rooftop-homes-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A new study by researchers from the <strong>University of South Australia (UniSA)<\/strong> and <strong>Deakin University, Victoria,<\/strong> has found that households with rooftop solar could gain more by <strong>sharing extra solar power with neighbours<\/strong> rather than just selling it back to the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now, almost <strong>40% of Australian households (around 4.1 million homes)<\/strong> have rooftop solar. While that\u2019s great for clean energy, it\u2019s also causing challenges \u2014 too much excess solar is flooding the grid, pushing down feed-in tariffs and making it harder for homeowners to get good value for their investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings, featured in the Renewable Energy journal, used <strong>real data from a 10kW solar-powered <a href=\"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/solar-system-services\/solar-panels-for-home\/\">home<\/a> in Geelong, Victoria<\/strong>. Researchers simulated how energy would be generated, used, stored, and shared under four different models over a 12-month period, including three neighbouring homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research explored these options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Peer-to-Grid (P2G):<\/strong> Selling extra solar back to the grid.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>P2G with <a href=\"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/buysolar\/product-category\/battery\/\">batteries<\/a>:<\/strong> Storing energy in batteries, then exporting the rest.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Peer-to-Peer (P2P):<\/strong> Selling extra energy directly to neighbours at an agreed price.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>P2P with batteries:<\/strong> Using stored energy first, then sharing leftover solar with neighbours.<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The results were eye-opening. <strong>P2P energy sharing helped neighbours cut their grid power use by more than 30%.<\/strong> When paired with a <strong>10kWh battery<\/strong>, the solar owner could make the highest return \u2014 nearly <strong>$5,000 over 20 years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Kevin Wang, the lead researcher from UniSA, explained why:<br>\u201cFeed-in tariffs are currently less than 5 cents per kWh in Victoria, while households are paying around 28 cents to buy electricity from the grid. If neighbours buy solar directly at a middle price, both sides win \u2013 sellers earn more, and buyers pay less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the study also found trade-offs. While batteries helped solar owners reduce their grid reliance, they left less surplus energy available for neighbours. Oversized batteries also reduced financial returns due to higher upfront and maintenance costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one scenario, a <strong>7.5kWh battery with P2P sharing delivered the best balance<\/strong> \u2013 cutting payback time to just 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Chunlu Liu from Deakin University said the study highlights the need for smart choices in how we use solar:<br>\u201cWhen <a href=\"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/buysolar\/product-category\/battery\/\">batteries<\/a> are used, they mostly benefit the solar owner. But when energy is shared, the whole community benefits. The real challenge is finding the right balance between self-use and sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With solar power now such a big part of Australian homes, this research suggests that <strong>neighbour-to-neighbour sharing could be the next step<\/strong> in making clean energy fairer, more affordable, and more beneficial for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study by researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) and Deakin University, Victoria, has found that households with rooftop solar could gain more by sharing extra solar&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aykasolar.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}