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.
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Should your business invest in energy storage?
Energy storage is a great option for commercial properties looking to cut energy costs and improve reliability. With storage prices decreasing in recent years, state and federal incentives to install storage, and increasingly complex–and pricey!–electricity rate schedules for businesses, there’s never been a better time to install solar and storage at your business. To help you decide whether storage is right for your organization, here’s a rundown of how storage works and the primary reasons that businesses are installing storage.
Continue readingSolar news: October 1st, 2021
In this week’s news roundup, we discuss an important update from Washington and a new study testing the viability of power sharing between neighbors.
Continue readingWhat is a solar generator and is it right for you?
Solar isn’t just for rooftops – you can use portable solar products like solar generators as a backup power source if the grid goes down, or as a source of electricity for your campsite, RV, or boat. But what is a solar generator exactly? And how does it compare with typical fossil-fuel powered generators? In this article, we’ll break down the key things you need to know about solar generators so you can decide if they’re right for you!
Continue readingWe read LG Chem’s battery warranty so you don’t have to
Let’s face it – warranties aren’t the easiest (or most gripping) documents to read. There are often a lot of details and fine print included that can be hard to digest, leaving many to wonder: what does the warranty actually cover? Am I vulnerable? Anything I might be missing?
To make it as easy as possible, we’ve read warranty documents for the top solar battery manufacturers, talked to them to confirm what is and isn’t included, and plan to point out the most important aspects of each in a series of articles. This article reviews the warranty offering from a world renowned electronics manufacturer: LG Chem.
Continue readingHome battery backup power vs. generators: which is right for you?
If you live in an area with frequent power outages, you already know the benefits of having a backup power supply for your home. Propane, diesel, and natural gas-powered generators have long been the system of choice for homeowners and businesses that want to ensure that the lights stay on when the power goes out in the neighborhood. Now, an increasing number of people are considering newer, cleaner battery options like the Tesla Powerwall.
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 readingWe read Tesla’s Powerwall warranty so you don’t have to
Let’s face it – warranties aren’t the easiest (or most gripping) documents to read. There are often a lot of details and fine print included that can be hard to digest, leaving many to wonder: what does the warranty actually cover? Am I vulnerable? Anything I might be missing?
To make it as easy as possible, we’ve read warranty documents for the top solar battery manufacturers, talked to them to confirm what is and isn’t included, and plan to point out the most important aspects of each in a series of articles. For this article, we reviewed Tesla’s Powerwall warranty.
Tesla is one of the most recognizable companies in the clean energy industry, with impressive forays into solar, storage technology, and electric vehicles. Their Powerwall is one of the most popular energy storage options currently offered on the market.
Continue readingWe read Electriq Power’s battery warranty so you don’t have to
Let’s face it – warranties aren’t the easiest (or most gripping) documents to read. There are often a lot of details and fine print included that can be hard to digest, leaving many to wonder: what does the warranty actually cover? Am I vulnerable? Anything I might be missing?
To make it as easy as possible, we’ve read warranty documents for the top solar battery manufacturers, talked to them to confirm what is and isn’t included, and plan to point out the most important aspects of each in a series of articles. This article discusses the warranty offering of Electriq Power, an American storage manufacturer based out of California.
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