Author: codex

Australia is already recognised as the principal global testing ground for battery storage technologies, which is why nearly all the major battery storage developers are releasing products here to take advantage of high network charges and the highest penetration of rooftop solar PV.

But which is the best product? That depends on what the consumer wants to do with the battery – go off-grid, provide back-up in case of a blackout, act as a hedge against time of use pricing, or simply to store their own solar energy for use at night.

The team led by Finn Peacock, from Solar Quotes, has developed what we think isthe most comprehensive table that compares the numerous battery storage offerings in Australia – giving details on price, capacity, depth of discharge, dimensions, and purpose, and a list of pros and cons, and an overall assessment

“As demand for solar battery storage starts to climb I’m getting more and more questions along the lines of: ‘I’m interested in batteries. What are my options – apart from a Powerwall’?,” Peacock says. “A comprehensive answer to that question is hard, as new storage products are launched weekly. And trying to make an apples-for-apples comparison is even harder as many specifications are not online and even prices can be hard to get.”

Peacock says the aim of his Battery Storage Comparison Table is to eventually have every battery storage product available in Australia in the table, so their specifications and prices can be easily compared.

“When compiling this table we didn’t just get the required information from the manufacturer’s websites – because a lot of it is not there. My team had to call up and ask for much of the information you see presented in the table. “Interestingly we found that when specifications are missing from a battery manufacturer’s website, it is usually because that particular number doesn’t compare favorably with the competition.”

And the initial findings? Peacock’s team votes in favour of the LG Chem Resu Product, a 6.4kWh lithium-ion product that retails for around $7,500, and has a 3.2kWh “expansion” product available. “LG has put out, in our humble opinion, the best combination of price and performance currently available on the marketplace,” Peacock’s team notes.

Tesla has retooled its strategy for selling people with solar panels on batteries to store excess energy before the company even sold its first units.

The electric automaker unveiled a new suite of batteries last May, called Powerwalls, for homes and businesses. However, it quietly dropped its 10 kilowatt-hour device, the larger of its two residential batteries. Originally marketed as a backup power supply in case of grid-wide blackout, the $3,500 unit wasn’t as affordable as other alternatives, especially given that solar panels are sold separately.

Instead, the company said it plans to focus on its 7 kilowatt-hour Powerwall, meant for storing excess solar energy generated throughout the day for use at night or when the sun isn’t shining.

“We have seen enormous interest in the Daily Powerwall worldwide,” Tesla wrote in a statement emailed to The Huffington Post on Thursday. “The Daily Powerwall supports daily use applications like solar self-consumption plus backup power applications, and can offer backup simply by modifying the way it is installed in a home. Due to the interest, we have decided to focus entirely on building and deploying the 7 kWh Daily Powerwall at this time.”

South Korean lithium-ion battery maker LG Chem has announced plans to expand its presence in the Australian residential solar and battery storage market, following “exponential” growth over the past six months, and chasing even greater growth in what it says could be a “critical decade” for the technology.

LG Chem launched its lithium-ion 6.4kWh Residential Energy Storage Unit (RESU6.4EX) on the Australian market last July, and has since supplied 600 units via its two main local distributors – Solar Juice and Supply Partners.

The company says it expects to see a five-fold increase on this number in 2016, supplying more than 3000 units for the year, and an even greater rate of growth in 2017, when the country’s remaining high solar FiTs are ratcheted down.

This, combined with the urgency of replying renewables to tackle climate change and encouraging noises of support for from federal and state governments, all point to busy times ahead for battery storage manufacturers, LG says.

“This could be a critical decade for Australia,” said the company’s manager of Australian business development, Changhwan Choi, in a statement on Thursday.

“We see a quiet solar revolution brewing and we strongly believe that LG Chem will be at the forefront of this transformation to help unlock the true value of solar storage and better enable the ecosystem.

“We welcome competition too. We are positive that when more people adopt the RESU6.4EX in Australia, the market will appreciate the quality, efficiency and cost competitiveness of our offering”.

In a telephone interview from Singapore, LG’s Changhwan told One Step that a key difference between his company and a competitor like Tesla was scale. Well established as one of the leading global manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, LG Chem has a good head start on mass-market production.

“We have the biggest manufacturing facility in the world,” he said, which meant that, based on the volume, the batteries could be very competitive on price.

So far, their biggest market for residential batteries has been in Germany, a “very stabilised” market which they started supplying back in 2012.

As well as Australia, Chanhwan says LG Chem is also focusing on the UK market, where the major solar FiT finished last year, and on Italy, which he says is experiencing similar conditions to Australia, with a high penetration of rooftop solar and high electricity costs.

In Australia, Changhwan says LG Chem is also very keen to tap the utility-scale and commercial-sized battery market. The company already has many examples of this installed in the US and Europe, using its 10MWh and 30MWh container batteries.

“We are ready to supply (large-scale battery storage) as soon as the utility companies are ready,” he told OneStep, adding that it was his guess that time would arrive at the end of this year.

On the residential battery front, LG is still hoping for some policy support to fuel uptake, and suggests a key support measures will be to design new “tariffs that can allow consumers to realise the economic benefits of an investment in the technology”, such as pricing structures based on time-of-use.

“With the FiTs finished, there are many, many houses with solar panels that can use battery storage to help reduce their electricity bill,” Changwan told One Step. “They can use the energy from the battery when the electricity cost is high.”

According to the available specs on LG Chem’s RESU6.4EX battery, it is a compact lightweight unit (60kg) and claims to have the highest energy density in the world; that is, the smallest in volume compared to the amount of energy it can deliver.

It is principally designed to be used in conjunction with an inverter to maximise solar self-consumption, but can also be used in an off-grid situation.

The battery systems can be upsized, with the addition of 3.2kWh expansion packs, taking total capacity to 9.6kWh or 12.8kWh energy storage, depending on the household’s needs.

The battery can be cycled (discharged and re-charged) 6000 times to 90 per cent depth of discharge (DoD) and according to one sources, in terms of $/kWh, is believed to be one of the cheapest batteries on the current market. (Prices for the battery appear to be around the $8,000 mark, + GST.)

When bidders crunch the number on a looming US$20 billion auction of Australian power assests in one of the world’s biggest privitisation of this year, they would do well to cast their eyes upward to the tops of apartment blocks and factories.

Business for fitters of rooftop solar panels in eastern Australia where the sale is to take place, is flourishing as more households and companies choose to generate their own power rather than rely entirely on electricity from the grid.

While solar remains a small part of the nations energy mix, accounting for about 2% of electricity output, the industries growth in recent years is casting a shadow over the impending auction of power assets in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales.

Demand for solar power began stirring around eight years ago, when expensive upgrades to the grid jacked up electricity bills while roof-top panel prices were falling. The market has continued to grow despite easing in late 2010, when the government started slashing generous subsidies for people who sold power back to the grid.

“Whether it takes 12 months, 2 years or 5 years, I believe batter storage will become viable” said Matt Vella, managing director of MPV Solar & Solar Storage Co, Which turns over five million Australian Dollars (US$3.9 million) a year installing panels in sun-soaked Sydney suburbs.

Greg Wolfson, Senior Director of Storage Product Line at Enphase, introduces the Enphase Home Energy Solution, a modular, integrated energy storage system that combines solar generation, energy control, and energy storage. This new Enphase offering will first appear in Australia and New Zealand, and residents in those countries can go here to register their interest in purchasing the Enphase Home Energy Solution.

To watch the video – click here

Technology is evolving—both in the solar industry and home automation space—and finding a way to connect the two has become increasingly important.

Last year, Enphase introduced the vision for its Enphase Energy Management System with the promise of integrating solar generation, energy storage, load monitoring and smart grid intelligence into what will create the smart, connected home.

Today, Enphase is launching a key component of our energy management system—the Envoy-S Solution.  Now, Envoy-S enables more cost effective and reliable installations while creating greater value for solar customers.

The Envoy-S communications gateway serves as the local “brain” for the system, balancing generation, storage and load. With the new gateway, Enphase is introducing a complete solution: the Enphase AC Combiner Box, the Enphase Mobile Connect cellular modem and data plan and a series of partnerships that further extend energy management capabilities.

We’ve worked hard to balance the need for a simple, fast installation with the ability to offer new features to homeowners, so there are two versions of Envoy-S, one Standard and one Metered.  Both have a longer warranty, can be installed outdoors and use integrated WiFi to work with a redesigned Installer Toolkit mobile app for fast and easy system set up. The Envoy-S Metered adds built-in revenue-grade generation metering and optional consumption metering for managing storage and integrating with other home energy solutions.