Homeowners were promised an easy story: install solar and it will pay for itself. In reality, solar produces electricity when households do not need it and pays back when the market is saturated with cheap power. Energy is exported at low prices and bought back during expensive hours. This mismatch destroys returns. Without storage, cheap solar often becomes the most expensive mistake in home energy.

Why production does not match consumption

• Solar generation peaks in the middle of the day.

• Household consumption peaks in the evening.

These curves do not align.

Homes generate the most electricity when demand is lowest. The surplus is pushed into the grid. Later, when panels produce nothing, households buy electricity back at peak prices. This structural mismatch is the main reason solar loses value without storage.

Why exporting surplus destroys your payback

Most European markets have moved away from net metering, where exported energy was credited at the same rate as imported energy.

The dominant model is now net billing:

• exports are paid at low wholesale-linked rates

• imports are charged at full retail prices

The result is one-directional loss. You sell cheap and buy expensive. The spread erodes the economics. This is why many early solar systems never reached their promised payback.

Why low feed in rates are not a bug they are the design

Low export prices are not a failure of the system. They are its design. When solar output peaks, supply overwhelms demand and prices collapse. In some markets they approach zero or even turn negative. The grid does not need your midday surplus. That is why it pays almost nothing for it. The grid needs power in the evening peak. That is why prices are highest then. Solar without storage is not a financial strategy. It is a subsidy to the grid at the owner’s expense.

Why storage flips the economics

A battery solves the one problem solar cannot: timing.

With storage:

• surplus energy is stored instead of dumped

• evening consumption is supplied internally

• expensive peak imports are avoided

• Low-value exports are reduced

Without storage, you export low and import high. With storage, you avoid both. That difference determines whether the system creates value or destroys it.

Why the cheap solar myth collapsed

• Panels became cheaper.

• Electricity markets became more volatile.

• Net metering disappeared.

• Net billing became standard.

The market no longer guarantees solar payback. Solar alone is incomplete hardware. Value comes from control, which only exists with storage.

Why households feel the burn

Many homeowners now see the reality:

• weak export prices

• high evening bills

• declining returns

Storage is not an add-on. It is the component that protects the asset from market reality. No rational investor would buy a machine that sells at the lowest price and buys at the highest. Yet solar-only households do exactly that every day.

Why solar plus storage is the new baseline

Solar panels generate electricity. Batteries monetise it. Without storage, solar loses value but with storage, solar works.