The Enphase AC battery. image: Enphase
Until now, if you have been one of the highly intelligent and undoubtedly good looking people with a grid connect solar system and you wanted to add batteries, you were looking at spending at least $10,000.
But that will no longer be the case in August when the teeny tiny $2,000 Enphase AC Battery becomes available in Australia. [Read more…]
The GCL E-Kwbe battery may be unpronounceable – but it may also save the world. Kind of.
GCL, a large Chinese company, has unveiled a new lithium-ion energy storage system at a price point that some consider to be shocking. Called the EKwBe, it has a seven year warranty, a ten year expected lifespan, and comes in two varieties. A 2.5 kilowatt-hour system that wholesales excluding GST for $1,499 and a larger 5.6 kilowatt-hour system that wholesales for $2,999. This is the lowest price that has been offered for any comparable energy storage system and I believe that it, or something similar, has the potential to change the world.
Update: 1st December 20016. The GCL EKWBE battery currently appears to be retailing for around $3,600 inc GST. This doesn’t give it a cost per warranted kilowatt-hour as low as the announced Tesla Powerwall 2, but it will be interesting to see if GCL will cut its price further in response once the Powerwall 2 is actually available for installation.
[wpdtable id=”5918″] [Read more…]
How does the LG Resu compare to the Tesla Powerwall?
If you are looking at a 6.4kWh Lithium-Ion battery for use with your solar power system in Australia right now, you are probably tossing up between a LG Chem Resu 6.4Ex and the Tesla Powerwall.
To help you decide which one is for you – here is a side by side comparison, and some commentary on their warranties below. [Read more…]
A Sonnen Battery Storage Unit. Photo: sonnen GmbH
The surge of popularity of solar and storage in Oz has triggered a battery storage invasion as companies are keen to test our country as an ideal market. The most recent of these announcements comes from German clean energy company Sonnen. [Read more…]
Duracell has just announced its first product in the home battery storage market – competing directly with Tesla.
Well, it finally happened. After sitting on the sidelines as the solar battery storage boom unfolded around it, the world’s biggest name in batteries has finally joined the party.
Today, April 1, at a glittering press event in Bethel, Connecticut, Duracell’s VP of Solar Storage, George Leclanche, unveiled the Duracell Ultra Lithium Home Battery – which will be available in priority markets including Australia by the end of the year. [Read more…]
The cost of a storing each kWh in a Tesla Powerwall is much more than you might think.
[Update: on Oct 28 2016 Tesla announced the Powerwall 2 ]
[Update: In June 2016 Tesla updated the Powerwall warranty – details here]
11 months ago Elon Musk jumped on stage and announced the Powerwall. The Tesla data sheets released after Musk’s presentation proclaimed we would soon be able to buy a 7kWh daily cycling Powerwall for US$3,000. It would be guaranteed for 10 years with an optional 10 year warranty extension available. Treehouse, one of the companies who Tesla announced would be first to sell it in the US declared that $3,000 was the retail price – not the wholesale price and we all went “Wow! Cheap batteries have finally arrived.”. [Read more…]
Do you want your new solar system to be ‘battery ready’? First you have to know what that actually means…
Most homeowners I speak to are really keen to get batteries.
Just not right now.
They want to wait a few years until the price has come down substantially. And who can blame them when a typical battery system in 2016 has a payback of 20 years but only carries a 10 year warranty.
So clued up homeowners looking to buy solar are really keen to get a system that they can easily add batteries to in the future.
Solar companies have caught on to this and we are starting to see solar systems sold without batteries but advertised as ‘battery ready’.
Here at SolarQuotes we are getting more and more questions about what ‘battery ready’ actually means in these adverts, and the best way to buy a solar system that really is battery ready.
The truth is that ‘battery ready’ can mean lots of things. Many of the ads I have seen are technically correct – in that you can add batteries in the future – but probably not as easily, or with the functionality that many people will be expecting.
In my opinion if you are going to claim a specific solar system as battery ready then you must be more specific and explain the basis on which you are making the claim.
In this post I’ll go through 3 different interpretations of ‘battery ready’ – make sure you understand which one you are being offered. [Read more…]
Just 3 of the Powerwall alternatives now available in Australia.
Manufacturers of Powerwall alternatives struggled to be heard last week as the mainstream media went crazy over the beautifully stage managed, first residential Powerwall battery storage installation in Australia.
The mood was one of expectation and excitement — mixed with a tinge of dread in fossil fuel circles – as it heralded the advent of affordable home batteries from Tesla and its many competitors in the home battery market. [Read more…]
How the Tesla Powerwall and Enphase AC battery specs compare.
In terms of good marketing in Australia, two batteries stand head and shoulders above the rest in Australia right now: the Tesla Powerwall and Enphase AC battery. Both of which are due for mainstream release in 2016.
(There are lots of alternative batteries around – many of which are worth considering – but this article is about Tesla vs Enphase due to the volume of enquiries we get about them.) [Read more…]
Solar & Batteries will be installed in half of all Aussie homes, sooner than you think.
How long before solar and battery storage becomes the cheapest way to access electricity in Australia? A decade? Twenty? Thirty years?
Only three years according to a new report from the Climate Council, which also found that an expected half of all Australian households will soon have solar and battery storage. Should this eventuate, it would mean a stunning 50-fold increase over the next ten years with a potential worth of around $24 billion. [Read more…]
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