German market researcher EuPD Research recently interviewed 1,000 British homeowners about energy consumption and photovoltaics. Respondents who were interested in PV or even PV owners – who make up over a third of the sample – were asked if they knew that PV storage solutions are being offered. A startling 70% of them answered ‘no’.
Awareness of product availability is the most basic step of every buying process. The British market, however, is already deficient at this stage meaning existing market potentials cannot be realized.
The survey results on the solar storage market show exactly this. 70% of the PV-aware respondents do not know that storage solutions exist. This is especially evident in respondents who are currently concerned with PV as they are currently planning their own solar plant. Only every fifth of these homeowners knows about storage solutions. Even among PV owners only fifty percent are aware of energy storage.
Additionally, results from EuPD Research’s 2015 InstallerMonitor showed that only 12 percent of British installers carry storage solutions in their portfolio. Installers are central intermediaries between manufacturers and end customers, for photovoltaics as well as for storage. Without them, end customers are hard to reach. “For the first time, the lack of commitment by the installers can be shown from the end customer’s perspective,” EuPD Research analyst Inga Batton sums up the results.
Further content of the study includes the characterisation of the homeowners regarding living conditions, consumption behaviour and specific attitudes towards and knowledge about photovoltaics.