sonnen is one of the biggest names in energy storage. Their product line now includes three different models: the familiar sonnen eco, the ecoLinx, and now, their new sonnenCore battery. The sonnenCore is a fully integrated energy storage system that includes an inverter and smart energy management software, at a more compact size than previous products from the company. Property owners with solar that install a home battery like the sonnenCore are able to store excess solar electricity for use later in the day. As a result, properties with solar-plus-storage can increase their total monthly savings in certain markets.
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LG Chem RESU: the complete review
LG is a leader in the home electronics industry and manufactures some of the most popular panels featured in quotes to shoppers on the EnergySage Solar Marketplace. Outside of making some of the highest quality solar panels on the market, LG’s battery subsidiary, LG Chem, produces one of the most popular batteries in the U.S. market: the LG Chem RESU 10H battery.
Continue readingsonnen eco: the complete battery review
sonnen is one of the biggest names in energy storage technology, and in 2016 the company announced a new battery designed for home use: the sonnen eco. The eco is a fully integrated energy storage system that includes an inverter and smart energy management software. Property owners with solar that install a home battery like the eco are able to store excess solar electricity for use later in the day. As a result, properties with solar-plus-storage can increase their total monthly savings in certain markets. (Note: check out our review of sonnen’s other primary product line–the ecoLinx–here.)
Continue readingAutoGrid’s Flex Saver program
Installing solar-plus-storage is a great way to save money. We all use electricity, and the electricity produced by solar panels is less expensive than what you would otherwise purchase from the grid, meaning solar can help you save significantly over decades while your panels are producing electricity. But solar and storage do more than just help you save on your own electricity bills: combined, they can help reduce the overall cost of electricity to the grid as a whole (see our recent guest post from Synapse Energy Economics).
Continue readingHow many solar batteries do I need?
Solar batteries are becoming more and more common for individual homeowners, and just like solar panels, the exact battery installation you should get depends on your unique situation and what you want to get out of energy storage. The question “how many solar batteries do I need?” doesn’t have a straightforward answer – in this article, we’ll outline the major factors that contribute to the size of a battery system, and around how large your solar battery setup should be.
Continue readingWhat is a virtual power plant?
At its core, a solar panel installation at your home or business is basically a miniature power plant – even more so once you add a solar battery to be able to store the solar electricity you produce and use it even after the sun has gone down. As more and more homes and businesses install solar panels across the country (we’re at over 3 million solar installations nationwide!), these distributed, miniature power plants present an opportunity: if you aggregate enough of them together, you can turn all of those miniature solar power plants into one, larger “virtual” power plant. Here’s how virtual power plants work and how you can participate in one.
Continue readingTesla Powerpack: what you need to know
The Tesla ecosystem is full of innovative energy products, from cars to solar roof tiles and more. One of Tesla’s lesser-known offerings is the Powerpack, a commercial-scale battery storage system designed to help large electricity users save money and control their energy usage.
Continue readingRecycling solar batteries and electric car batteries: what you need to know about lithium-ion battery recycling
Electric vehicles (EVs) are all the rage – and might just be the centerpiece to the clean energy revolution. There’s a catch, however. Along with all of those electric cars comes an equal amount of lithium-ion batteries to power them, and recycling those batteries is a complicated, but necessary, problem to solve. What’s more, home batteries like the Tesla Powerwall are usually made of very similar materials to EV batteries, so there’s even more to recycle.
Similar to solar panel recycling, it’s expensive and difficult to separate out the components of a lithium-ion battery to the point where they can be recycled and reused. Nowadays, lithium-ion battery recycling exists, but not nearly on the scale and at the efficiency we need it to as batteries become more and more popular.
Continue readingTesla’s shift to LFP batteries: why it matters
In 2020, Tesla announced that they would be manufacturing their Model 3 cars in China using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, moving away from their traditional nickel-based chemistries they use in US-based car manufacturing. Tesla doubled down on their bet on iron batteries in the spring of 2021, announcing intent to use LFP batteries in their grid-scale energy storage solution: the Megapack.
Continue readingLong duration storage: what you need to know 2021
As states and cities throughout the country embrace the renewable energy transition, setting and committing to 100 percent clean energy targets, one crucial gap remains in ultimately meeting those targets: how do you stretch the production from renewable resources like wind and solar to keep powering the country even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Enter long duration storage, the promising broad category of technologies that can fill this gap.
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