Going off-grid means not being connected to the energy grid that traditionally brings people power. To do this successfully, you need to have the right equipment to produce all the electricity you need, and that can make it available when you need it. Even with a big system of solar, wind and battery storage, this may not always be possible. For times your off-grid system can’t produce and store enough energy, you’ll need a backup generator to provide essential power.
Limited supply: an off-grid system can only supply a certain amount of electricity. If you suddenly need more than the system’s capacity to produce or store,
you will need a backup generator (and its capacity at any given time also has limits). It may mean you need to avoid running lots of energy intense appliances at once.
Wasted clean energy: if you’re off-grid there is no grid to export your unneeded solarpower to – you can only store so much, any extra goes to waste, and you can’t earn a feed-in tariff for it. If your system is big enough to power your home in winter (when there is less sun), there will be lots of wasted electricity in summer when energy generation increases.
A big responsibility: you’ll need to maintain and manage your system yourself, and if part of it breaks down you might have little or no power until it’s fixed.
