Ideally, solar power plants are installed to convert the sun’s energy directly into electricity. Batteries help in storing the additional energy for later use. But, in general, batteries are costly and require huge maintenance. Thus, the usage of batteries is still not a viable option in India in terms of cost incurred versus benefits accrued. Also, most of these are not lithium ion batteries and hence, the purpose of going green gets defeated. That’s where the concept of net metering comes into the picture. In Net Metering, the grid acts as a huge bank & stores your extra solar power, eliminating the need for an expensive battery bank. A small battery backup system should be sufficient for power outages.