Chevy Bolt Electric Car Reveals How Cheap Batteries Really Are

October 11, 2016 2017-04-18T15:30:08 by 19 Comments
chevy bolt and 6 x LG Chem Resu 10

You can buy 60kWh of storage in a Chevy Bolt for a similar price to 60kWh of uninstalled home battery packs.

Looking to buy some LG Chem batteries but don’t want to pay full price? In that case, I have a little scheme you might be interested in.

If you want to, you could buy an LG Chem RESU6.5 battery system which will set you back around $1,000 per kilowatt-hour of storage. Or you could do a little better by buying a RESU10 as that will only cost you around $900 a kilowatt-hour. But if you follow my advice you can net yourself LG Chem batteries for only $822 a kilowatt-hour.

There is a slight drawback to my plan in that you have to buy 60 kilowatt-hours of batteries to get them for that price. But trust me, it’s well worth it because if you buy these batteries you get a free stereo system! There is no denying that’s a sweet deal. [Read more…]

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New LG Chem RESU Batteries: Smaller, More Powerful And Cheaper Than A Powerwall

October 3, 2016 2018-01-17T14:14:30 by 132 Comments
powerwall and LG Resu 6.5 to scale

Smaller, cheaper, more powerful. LG Chem’s new batteries look very compelling compared to a Powerwall.

If you are in the market for a home battery and are tempted to buy a Powerwall, then I urge you to also consider the new range of LG Chem batteries announced last week.

Whilst LG have been unable to compete with Elon Musk for mainstream media coverage, the LG Chem RESU, or Residential Energy Storage Unit for the long winded, has been one of the biggest successes in on-grid home energy storage in Australia. While solid figures are hard to come by, it may have been used in almost half of all on-grid home battery installations.

[Read more…]

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Misleading Statements On Sunrise Hurt Solar Industry

September 23, 2016 2017-04-18T15:36:26 by 24 Comments
sunrise

The scene in the Brakels’ household last Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning the program Sunrise had a segment on solar power and battery storage. While I am glad whenever popular TV takes the opportunity to educate people on these topics, that wasn’t what happened here. It was the opposite of education, as anyone watching it could easily come away believing the following three things:

1. Battery storage pays for itself.
2. Battery storage cuts CO2 emissions.
3. Rooftop solar needs batteries to be worthwhile.

None of these things are true.

Battery storage does not pay for itself when used on-grid and it may be years before it does.

Home batteries do not cut emissions, they increase them. In the future they may allow us to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but that point is still years away.

Rooftop solar by itself is cost effective. It is adding batteries that can make it uneconomical.  The mistaken belief that rooftop solar needs batteries to be effective is causing harm to both the solar industry and the environment, as people are delaying installing rooftop solar until batteries become affordable. [Read more…]

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Goodwe’s GW2500-BP DC Converter: The Cheapest Way To Retrofit Batteries?

September 19, 2016 2019-06-25T14:58:38 by 15 Comments
goodwe bp

This yellow box is a DC converter (not an inverter) that lets batteries share your solar inverter.

If you own a solar system and want to add batteries then, in theory, the cheapest way to do this is to simply plug your batteries into your existing solar inverter. The solar inverter can then convert the batteries’ DC power into AC power, just like it does for your solar.

Unfortunately, in practice, regular solar inverters are not designed to be shared by solar and batteries, so this hasn’t been possible and battery upgrades have been jolly expensive as a result.

But Goodwe, a major Chinese inverter manufacturer, has just released a battery DC converter, going by the catchy name of GW2500-BP. It is designed to allow batteries to interface to existing solar inverters.

This DC converter may be the cheapest way to add batteries to an existing solar home. It will also bypass any restrictions that Australian network operators may put in the way of using battery-inverters, such as the Sunny Boy Storage.

By itself it won’t make battery storage pay, but it brings it one step closer to being cost effective. [Read more…]

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Does Battery Storage Help Or Hurt The Environment?

September 1, 2016 2017-04-18T17:23:21 by 66 Comments
an eco-warrior dreaming about a powerwall

If you want to save the environment and have limited funds, then buying batteries should not be a priority.

Millions of Australians have installed rooftop solar to help the environment and save money.

Many are hoping home battery storage will soon let them do the same.

The cost of home energy storage is falling rapidly and it may not be long before it pays for itself.  But at its current price it will not save money, even under favourable circumstances, when used on-grid.  Despite this, there have been hundreds, or possibly thousands, of people who have installed home battery systems because they want to help the environment.

Have these people  made a horrible mistake? [Read more…]

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Going off grid with Redflow’s ZCell? Here’s how to handle the ‘maintenance purge’.

August 25, 2016 2017-04-18T17:25:18 by 13 Comments
simon and 2 batteries

Simon Hackett with an early customer’s double Zcell off grid system.

Yesterday, Aussie solar veteran Tony Smith left an interesting question at the bottom of our ZCell battery review. Tony asked, for an off grid application, how to handle the fact that the ZCell battery needs to shut down so it can perform maintenance mode every week or so: [Read more…]

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Aquion Battery Review: Safe… But Limited Power & Efficiency

August 24, 2016 2018-06-12T13:42:02 by 48 Comments
DIY Salt Water Battery

You can now buy an Aquion salt water battery to power your home. Nemo not included.

UPDATE MARCH 2017: As of March 8, 2017, Aquion has filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code

UPDATE JULY 2017 : Aquion Energy is resuming operations

Keen on storing your excess solar in a big battery? Worried about having a big box of toxic and/or flammable chemicals in your home? Then you’ll want to know about the Aquion battery and its salt water technology. [Read more…]

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Tesla Quietly Release New Powerwall Warranty: But There’s One Big Problem…

July 13, 2016 2017-04-18T17:33:36 by 15 Comments
powerwall warranty

The new Powerwall warranty quietly introduced into Australia last month says you are not covered for ‘normal degradation’. Whatever that means.

Can I interest you in buying a revolutionary new energy storage system? It is called the Brakulator 7000. It has a usable storage capacity of 6.4 kilowatt-hours with a continuous power output of 3.3 kilowatts.  And the great thing is it comes with a 10 year warranty.

Are you interested? [Read more…]

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SMA Sunny Boy Storage: Easily retrofit battery storage to your existing solar

June 15, 2016 2016-06-18T14:29:23 by 18 Comments
sunny boy storage

The Sunny Boy Storage. A low(ish) cost way to add a Powerwall and other batteries to your existing solar system. Image: SMA

The SMA Sunny Boy Storage is a battery-inverter that you can use to add battery storage to your existing rooftop solar system.

It does not store energy itself, but integrates modern battery packs, such as the Tesla Powerwall, into your home’s electricity supply. It is exciting because it is the cheapest and simplest way to add a battery such as the Powerwall to your existing system. This is because it can re-use your existing inverter – no need to replace it. [Read more…]

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ZCell Battery Review: Better Than Lithium-ion?

June 1, 2016 2023-06-05T08:00:03 by 104 Comments
redflow zcell vs powerwall etc

How does the Aussie Redflow ZCell compare to lithium ion batteries?

Note: the Cell battery has been superseded as Redflow continuously improves its product. The latest version of Redflow’s battery is called the ZBM3.

The Australian company Redflow is accepting pre-orders for its new home energy storage system, the ZCell battery.  It has a 10 kilowatt-hour usable storage capacity, can provide 3 kilowatts of continuous power, and is suitable for on-grid and off-grid use.  Deliveries will begin in August 2016.

In this Z-Cell battery review I go deep into the zinc bromide technology’s pros and cons compared to its main challenger: lithium ion batteries.

While there are many lithium-ion storage systems on the market, the Redflow ZCell stands out as the only zinc bromide flow battery.  Its unique chemistry gives it several advantages over lithium-ion systems.  One is it can lie dormant for long periods at any level of charge without suffering from deterioration.  And another is its storage capacity will never decline over its over its entire lifespan.  [Read more…]

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