The New Residential Batteries

New Vendors, Disruptors, New Models. Part II in a series

Intro

Part I provides some context on the new landscape in residential batteries; in this Part II, I list vendors and offerings and provide a bit of commentary. Part III is WIP and covers the new portable batteries.

I am not an expert but hopefully the material here will give you some additional context when you talk with installers and vendors about your situation. I will try to update the post with new information as I bump into it.

As usual, I’m writing to learn more of a topic. Additions, corrections, feedback are always very appreciated.

I’ll group the batteries to make it easier to discuss the features.

Update Log

• [Aug 6, 2024] Added PointGuard Energy

• [Aug 7, 2024] Expanded EP Cube (part of Canadian Solar)

From Portable to Stationary Batteries

Anker and Ecoflow merit a special group. These two companies started focused on portable batteries and charging and they have been expanding.

Anker

Anker has been expanding its scope beyond charging laptops and mobile devices. The Anker Solix brand uses a modular architecture and LFP batteries to provide products that range from portable Solar Panels to portable batteries to coolers with batteries to stationary residential batteries.

Solix X1 is Anker’s entry in “traditional” stationary residential storage market.

The battery has power from 3-36kW and capacity 5-180kWh. AC-Connected, with 10 years warranty. It seems very compelling; SolarReviews give the X1 a high rating and includes them in their list of Best Solar Batteries.

The portable inverters and batteries are interesting enough that I have grouped them into a separate writeup, together with the Ecoflow products. See Part III (wip).

I just noticed that Anker announced they will release a microinverter and an EV charger later in 2024. Competition is good.

Ecoflow

Ecoflow is following roughly the same approach as Anker although they have fewer products and name recognition. In the US, Ecoflow have portable battery systems that can be used to provide AC power to appliances through outlets in the unit. Like with Anker, their portable units can also also be connected to the house through a “Smart Home Panel”. Part III (tbd) covers Anker and Ecoflow.

Ecoflow has started providing stationary batteries in Europe and I just noticed that they are also advertising in the US site.

Additional Consumer Brands

Duracell (UK)

Duracell is another well-known consumer brand that is entering the residential market. Like other vendors, the LFP batteries are modular, with capacity ranging from 5kWh to 80kWh. Their batteries are compatible with the Duracell Power Center’s Max Hybrid. I believe the product is only available in Europe.

New Entries

Base Power (only Texas)

I am including Base Power because it is very interesting although it is only available in the ERCOT portion of Texas. ERCOT is an energy-only market with very high caps on the value of electricity. In addition, ERCOT is not well connected to other interconnects (to avoid being regulated by FERC) and has endured multiple high-profile blackouts.

Base Power will install a large capacity battery (20kWh battery and 11kW) in a residence for very low cost (just the installation cost). The battery is owned and operated by Base Power and the homeowner contracts power from Base Power at a reasonable rate. Base Power targets the lifespan of the battery as over 15 years. The battery provides benefits to the customer through time-shifting and resilience and, in exchange, Base Power can sell the “extra” power to ERCOT.

Base Power is essentially running a VPP, within the parameters of ERCOT and with a custom battery. SunRun’s Shift uses a “somewhat” similar approach though Shift (5kW and 9.6 kWh) is only intended for TOU time-shifting, while SunRun relies on Tesla Powerwall 3 and LG for larger batteries.

Base Power is at the early stages. Qualified households can get in a waiting list for their Gen 1 product and they are already working on a larger Gen 2 product.

EP Cube

EP Cube is the residential storage brand of Canadian Solar, a company that manufactures Solar Panels, inverters, as well as grid-scale ESS systems. There are two models: EP Cube and EP Cube Lite. Both systems are modular and stackable, they support AC connection and their warranty is 10 years. The modules include a hybrid inverter and LFP-based storage modules, the main difference is the size and expandability of the systems.

An EP Cube pack range from 9.9 kWh to 19.9 kWh, with 7.6kW of power, while the EP Cube Lite pack ranges from 6.6kWh to 19.9kWh with power. EP Cube allows up to 6 packs to be combined for a total of 45.6kW and 119.9kWh. The EP Lite power also starts at 7.6kW but the pack cannot be combined. EP Cube lite is focused on Time-Shifting with an emphasis in low product cost and low installation effort (20 minutes).

I’ve read good reports about EP Cube. I hope they enter the California market.

PointGuard Energy

PointGuard Energy is a new entry in the US. They are a rebrand of SigEnergy, a chinese company that sells in other markets. PointGuard has several products, including a modular, stackable system PointGuard Home. A pack can have up to 5 LFP storage modules, an Energy Controller module and a (future) optional V2X controller. There are two types of module, one is 5kWh/2.8kW and the other 8kWh/5.3kW. Packs can be stacked in groups of 5 to expand power and capacity. System has a hybrid inverter to handle PV input plus DC/AC connectivity.

Detailed Specs look very good. Warranty is 10 years (no mention of cycles).

PointGuard has been doing training events in California. I hope more installers carry them.

Established Vendors, Expanding

Most of the existing vendors are revamping their products. I’ll just highlight a few details

Enphase

Enphase is one of the big traditional vendors. The main Enphase core product is their microinverters. The latest generation of the microinverters, the iQ8, are grid-forming and Enphase uses them in their batteries, and will use them in their bidirectional chargers (Enphase bought ClipperCreek in 2022).

The latest Enphase battery is IQ 5P. Each battery is 5kWh with 3.84kW of sustained power (it can max to 7.6kW for 3 seconds for start-up loads). A common stack has 3 units for 15kWh and 11.5kW of sustained power. The Enphase batteries are AC-connected and have a 15 year warranty

Enphase also has IQ 3P and IQ 10P batteries. These batteries are the previous generation; the 10P model has more capacity but less power than the 5P.

A market advantage of the Enphase Batteries is the wide adoption of the Enphase microinverters and a desire from some customers to rely on a single brand.

Fortress

Fortress as a very solid company that targets commercial and residential customers. The lastest residential products from Fortress are the Avalon products. These modular, high end solutions use stackable storage units (each module is 4.9kWh, 90lbs). 3-6 modules combine into a stack that can then be combined into multiple stacks up to 176.4 kWh. The batteries have a warranty of 8000 cycles and can be AC or DC connected. The inverters are 7.6kW and 11.4 kW, than can be combined in parallel up to 10 units.

I have a friend that is a big Fortress fan.

FranklinWH

FranklinWH was one of the first vendors that I encountered that had large LFP residential products. Last year (2023) my perception was that FranklinWH was at the forefront of the whole-house backup solutions, while Tesla Powerwall (2 at that time) had the majority of the smaller installations. I believe FranklinWH is still focused on the higher-end of the space. Their product is modular; a single controller unit, called aGate, can control up to 15 storage units, called aPower, but each aPower is 13.6 kWh. Batteries have a 12 year warranty and are AC-connected.

I know multiple local installers that have been very happy with FranklinWH.

Panasonic

Panasonic recently added LFP batteries. Evervolt is modular and includes a hybrid inverter. Evervolt comes in cabinets of 3 sizes, 9, 13.5 and 18 kWh and can be stacked up to 4 cabinets. Power is 7.6kW for a single cabinet, or 4x that if combined. AC and DC-connected with 12 years warranty.

Nice to see Panasonic with LFP. Evervolt became available earlier this year.

Sonnen

Sonnen is a German company (now owned by Shell) with significant market presence in Europe and with LFP batteries. The latest version is SonnenEVO; each battery is 10kWh/4.8kW and can be combined up to 3 batteries. I used to hear quite a bit about Sonnen in early 2023 but I’ve heard much less of them recently in the USA/California. The Sonnen batteries are AC-connected with warranty of 10 years or 10000 cycles.

Tesla

Tesla is the biggest established player in residential batteries (in the USA). Their latest product is the Powerwall 3. Like the other vendors, PW3 is LFP and it can be stacked for power and for storage (Details). A single module is 13.5kWh with continuous discharge of 11.5kW. A PW3 includes a hybrid inverter to manage attached Solar Panels (up to 20kW, though the battery can only charge at up to 5kW), and it can also be charged via an AC connection. Up to 4 PW3 can be combined to provide 46 kWh. Warranty is 10 years.

The PW3 is a nice offering, particularly if you are using the hybrid inverter and just plug in the panels to it. Our household already has an Enphase microinverter setup which makes the PW3 a less useful; plus there are Elon Musk’s antics to overcome.

I also read that a PW3 can be used with a Tesla Universal Charger to do bidirectional charging from a CyberTruck. It would be nice if Enphase pulled a similar trick with their setups.

Finally, Tesla Energy is a proponent of VPPs. Customers in Texas and California can easily participate in the VPP, though the compensation value is still fairly low.

Also Notable

A brief shutout to these additional companies. I’ll expand the entries as time permits.

Emporia Energy

Emporia Energy has energy monitor systems (I have an Emporia Vue Utility Connect), smart plugs, EV chargers, … and LFP Batteries. The Emporia LFP battery comes from SolaX Power and it is modular and stackable, with warranty of 12 years or 6,000 cycles.

Lunar Energy

Lunar Energy is another modular system. I didn’t include it in the list above because it does not use LFP chemistry and because the company seems to be more focused on their VPP software.

Generac PwrCell

Generac has been building backup generators for a long time. Generac PwrCell is the battery group of the company. The company has a long history and has solid products. I don’t know how well they compete with the latest versions of the other companies.

LG prime

LG has had energy storage solutions for a while but I believe they don’t yet have an LFP offering.

NeoVolta

LFP battery. Not modular, can be stacked once.

Tigo

LFP battery.

QCells (Added)

QCells is best known for their Solar panels but they also have stationary batteries. Modular, Stackable, LFP. 12 years warranty. Full Specs. Integrated hybrid inverter. DC and AC connected. Looks good!

Parting Thoughts

I hope this writeup gives you additional leads to consider in your journey towards a residential battery. At the end of the day your decision will likely be influenced by other details besides the raw capacity, power, number of cycles, warranty, and other technical details. Check my wish list in Part I, and look for a good, and trusty, installer :).

Yet another area to consider are financial details. Not just the price of the batteries, and the installer, but also rebates provided by different entities. If you are interested in VPPs, you will want to check which VPPs are applicable and what batteries they support. As an example, check what models are supported by Green Mountain Power.

Enjoy!