Batteries are not the only form of energy storage; there are several useful types, and a well-designed off-grid facility should take advantage of them. These are energy storage media that can store energy (either produced from wind and solar pv or solar thermal) that can offload the energy storage burden on a battery array.
Here are some that come to mind:
Compressed air:
Here are some that come to mind:
Compressed air:
- Any power tool that runs from electricity could possibly run from compressed air, sewing machines, blenders, etc.
- Direct diabatic expansion air conditioning.
- Aquaculture aeration.
- Charge a car while the sun shines, then use the car as a battery to run an inverter to power other loads
- Transport
- Prioritizing: electronic control circuits could be developed that could prioritize electric loads during sun hours; when a priority load no longer needs power, that power can be passed on to the next highest priority load
- Time of day and duration of load activation
- Pressurization of domestic cold water supply.
- Irrigation systems.
- Recovering mechanical energy by letting the load fall back (Thanks, Rerouter)
- Freezer: unlike a refrigerator, the temperature ofa freezer can be brought down so low during sun hours that during the night it never gets back above freezing
- Fridge: in combination with a freezer, bottles of ice can be transferred to an un-powered fridge to make an ice box
- Domestic space heating
- Domestic hot water (Thanks, station240)