Yes: You can absolutely use solar panels without battery storage. These solar-only systems come at a lower cost and, in most places, offer a greater return on investment. With net metering policies potentially shifting in coming years, self-consumption is one way to maximize your solar savings. However, solar. Using your solar energy directly or storing it for later use maximizes the value of your generated power, especially as net metering returns become less favorable. In many places, net metering no longer offers a one-to-one credit for the electricity you provide to the grid, which means you could. Battery storage can increase self-consumption rates from 30% to 80%: While residential systems without storage typically achieve 25-40% self-consumption, adding battery storage can boost this to 60-90%, dramatically improving payback periods from 6-8 years to 4-5 years. Future work will concentrate on. The AES Lawai Solar Project in Kauai, Hawaii has a 100 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system paired with a solar photovoltaic system.