Thanks to PV systems and battery storage, millions of households in Europe are already partially self-sufficient.
A German-Swiss research group has calculated the potential for European residential buildings to achieve grid independence with solar-plus-storage solutions. The team aimed to determine whether such homes could abandon the grid completely.
They based their calculations on a database that combined detailed geographic data about European buildings and households with local climate and economic factors. Using advanced techniques to simplify the process on high-performance computers, they designed cost-optimized, self-sustaining energy systems for 4,000 representative single-family homes. These results were then applied to the 41 million single-family homes they analyzed using neural networks.
“Under today’s conditions, 53% of the 41 million buildings are technically capable of powering themselves through the use of local rooftop PV systems alone, independent of external infrastructure, and this share could rise to 75% by 2050 due to improved technologies,” said researcher Russell McKenna. “If we now assume that building owners would be willing to invest up to 50% more than would be necessary for a comparable energy system with a grid connection, then up to two million single-family homes could leave the grid by 2050.”
Energy self-sufficient residential buildings show great potential, particularly in regions with stable weather patterns like Spain and areas with high electricity costs such as Germany. Electrolysis could also be a key component in cost-optimized systems.
“Our results show that a successful, cost-optimal and self-sufficient energy supply system for buildings in Central Europe will consist of photovoltaics for electricity generation as well as a combination of short-term battery storage and a long-term battery storage, seasonal hydrogen storage system,” said researcher Jann Weinand.
The key question is whether widespread adoption of fully self-sufficient, off-grid supply systems aligns with an efficient energy system. Single-family homes can contribute significantly to stabilizing a renewable-based energy system through load management, on-demand solar power injection, and provision of balancing services.
