{"id":7206,"date":"2016-08-24T16:05:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T06:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=7206"},"modified":"2024-08-18T20:26:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T10:56:25","slug":"aquion-salt-water-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/aquion-salt-water-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquion Battery Review: Safe… But Limited Power & Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DIY

You can now buy an Aquion salt water battery to power your home. Nemo not included.<\/p><\/div>\n

UPDATE MARCH 2017:\u00a0<\/strong>As of March 8, 2017, Aquion has filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE JULY 2017 :<\/strong> Aquion Energy is resuming operations<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Salt water batteries are making a splash in Australia right now. Or rather, since they are completely sealed, they haven’t splashed at all. But the good news is if they did splash you it would not be a problem, as the liquid inside is simply salt water. They are almost certainly the safest battery around. Although their low toxicity does not make them\u00a0the most environmentally friendly battery, for reasons I’ll go into a little later.<\/p>\n

Australia is a world leader in salt water battery technology with Western Australia’s Dr Manickam Minakshi <\/a>doing ground breaking work in the area. Unfortunately, as is far too often the case, lack of support for\u00a0locally developed clean technology means that the only salt water batteries you can buy here come from the United States.<\/p>\n

Salt water batteries are not a new invention, but the first ones practical for home energy storage were produced by the American company Aquion<\/a> in 2011. By the middle of 2015 they had sold around 2 megawatt-hours<\/a> worth of them in Australia. They are one of the few new battery types that are readily available without the need to go on a waiting list.<\/p>\n

\"aquion

A very nice NZ Aquion install using 5 batteries for ~10kWh of\u00a0storage. I’ve drawn around a single battery so you can see their shape. They are 94cm high. The red box is the solar inverter. The yellow box is the battery inverter.\u00a0Pic courtesy of SkySolar NZ<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Aquion salt water battery has the disadvantage of being very heavy per kilowatt-hour stored. You won’t want to lug one around with you to charge your phone when hunting Pokemon.<\/p>\n

It also has a low power output. Although the spec sheet claims 1 kilowatt peak power, this is only for 5 minutes. Their usable steady-state power is closer to 400 watts per battery. \u00a0The power of multiple\u00a0batteries is additive,\u00a0so for a typical Aussie home, which can easily draw 5kW for sustained periods, you’d be looking at 12 or more batteries.<\/p>\n

It is also important to know that the rate at which you charge and discharge the batteries affects both their:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • storage capacity, and<\/li>\n
  • roundtrip efficiency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The details of their current model, the Aspen 48S-2.2<\/a> battery, are shown in the table below:<\/p>\n

    [wpdtable id=”7314″]<\/span><\/p>\n

    And the official Aquion battery specs are here:<\/p>\n