Solar Energy: How Close is an “Off the Grid” Reality?

Basic laws of Supply and Demand dictate that as global demand for energy continues to rise, the price of energy will rise as well.  These expected energy price increases, along with environmental and security concerns, have led to an explosion in the renewable energy industries, especially at the individual consumer level.

Solar is by far the most common renewable energy technology at the individual consumer level.  The main drawback to solar is its relative lack of reliability, for instance on days that are cloudy or night time (though interestingly, supermoons can contribute small amounts of solar energy).  As energy costs rise, so does financial incentive to discover efficient methods of storage for solar energy.

Great strides have been made toward creating and improving grid-scale storage technology, including reverse water pumps, chemical energy storage and industrial sized ion batteries.  However, production of individual consumer scale storage seems to be lagging.