Home Energy Storage Enters a New Era

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/541336/home-energy-storage-enters-a-new-era/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Home Energy Storage Enters a New Era[/font]

[font size=4]Advanced lithium-ion chemistries offer cooler operation, longer life spans.[/font]

By Richard Martin on September 17, 2015

SimpliPhi’s installations, like this one for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, can help reduce loads on the grid and integrate more power from renewable sources.

[font size=3]Driven by the explosion of residential solar power, the market for home energy storage—which attracted little interest until earlier this year, when Tesla announced its Powerwall battery—is suddenly looking crowded.

This week at the Solar Power International show, in Anaheim, a company called SimpliPhi Power is unveiling a lightweight battery system for homes and small businesses that offers a longer life span than other lithium-ion batteries and doesn’t require expensive cooling and ventilation systems.

SimpliPhi’s bid comes a few weeks after another energy storage provider, Orison, released its design for a small plug-and-play battery system that, unlike the SimpliPhi and Powerwall options, does not require elaborate installation or permits for a home or small commercial setting.

Orison is not actually selling its products yet; the company plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign to take pre-orders and expects to begin selling in early 2016. Its innovations center on the batteries’ controls and communication systems: simply plugged into a wall socket, the battery enables a bidirectional flow of electricity, charging itself when power is flowing and sending power into the home circuits when it is not.

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[Gregorian]

1. Pretty interesting.

It's not new, but it's finally getting to the public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

Like nickel-based rechargeable batteries (and unlike other lithium ion batteries)[citation needed], LiFePO4 batteries have a very constant discharge voltage. Voltage stays close to 3.2V during discharge until the cell is exhausted. This allows the cell to deliver virtually full power until it is discharged. And it can greatly simplify or even eliminate the need for voltage regulation circuitry.

Because of the nominal 3.2V output, four cells can be placed in series for a nominal voltage of 12.8 V. This comes close to the nominal voltage of six-cell lead-acid batteries. And, along with the good safety characteristics of LFP batteries, this makes LFP a good potential replacement for lead-acid batteries in many applications such as automotive and solar applications, provided the charging systems are adapted not to damage the LFP cells through excessive charging voltages, temperature-based voltage compensation, equalisation attempts or continuous trickle charging. The LFP cells must be at least balanced initially before the pack is assembled and a protection system also needs to be implemented to ensure no cell can be discharged below a voltage of 2.0 V or severe damage will occur in most instances.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Looking at the price and capability of the Orison unit it seems most people would be better served

by buying a couple of UPSes that are sold mostly to computer users.