[RE-wrenches] Availability of Powerwall Batteries and the spin and hype of it all

Marco Mangelsdorf marco at pvthawaii.com
Fri Jan 22 08:36:58 PST 2016


Regarding battery storage out here in the middle of the Pacific…there’s so much hyperventilating going on that there’s practically class 2 hurricane winds across the Aloha State.  We’re being hit on by battery people from all corners as they see Hawaii as a hot market.

 

Let me tell you something about our hot-for-batteries market.

 

Since the Hawaiian Electric companies (HELCO, HECO and MECO) announced the end of the NEM program last October 12 and the two new interconnect agreements (customer grid supply and customer self supply) for systems 100 kWs and under, take a guess at how many CSS (with battery storage) applications the three companies have received to-date? 500?  200? 100?  Nope, nope and nope.  A whopping ONE.

 

Batteries may be the Holy Grail and mana from heaven of the future.  But in the present….close to nada.

 

marco

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of August Goers
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 6:26 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Availability of Powerwall Batteries

 

I’m chiming in a bit late on this one.

 

Solaredge is compatible with SunPower. See the P400:

 

http://www.solaredge.us/groups/us/powerbox/module-add-on

 

Solarege has been very popular in the Bay Area among SunPower and non-SunPower dealers.

 

I’ve attended a Tesla Powerwall training and the product is coming but it will probably be a slow and limited rollout (just my gut based on what I saw). The 400 volt battery output in particular will be the most revolutionary part of the product in my opinion. The Storedge product is their 1st gen battery product (I believe) so only time will tell how it works:

 

http://www.solaredge.us/groups/us/products/storedge

 

I’m not convinced that any of the other lithium products are ready for prime time. They are expensive and I don’t personally want to spend the time or money to experiment with them at this point. That said, we recently commissioned our first dual Schneider XW+ system with AGMs and besides a few hiccups, it looks like a very customizable and clean package. I agree that storage is the future and certainly the reduced size and increased cycling ability of lithiums make them very appealing.

 

Cheers,

 

August

Luminalt

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Peter Parrish
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 11:07 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'
Cc: peter.parrish at solargnosis.com
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Availability of Powerwall Batteries

 

I have a residential client who wants a grid tied PV system with battery backup. The client wants everything to be top of the line: Sunpower modules. Tesla Powerwall batteries. 

 

Unfortunately, I have been spending time recently researching "smart energy storage" for commercial applications focusing on peak demand shaving. These are 480 V 3-phase systems with 30 kW inverters and 48+ kWh Lithium technology batteries. I think I am beginning to understand the performance trade-offs and how these systems can complement PV to reduce demand charges as well as usage charges.

 

My problem, is that I have not spent as much time researching the newer residential GTBB offerings. I have studied the Juicebox offering – Schneider XW5548 plus NMC Lithium batteries -- but that’s about it. I don’t know the default vendor for the NMC batteries and if not Powerwall, could Powerwall be a replacement? 

 

Otherwise, does anyone know how to access the Powerwall offerings?  Also has anyone had success getting a rebate in CA through the SGIP/AES program? I know to qualify for SGIP one needs to demonstrate load shifting as opposed to (or in addition to BB).   

 

There seems to be an offering from Solaredge (Storedge), but it is not clear their optimizers work with the 96 cell Sunpower X21-345, for example.

 

I am convinced that smart storage will become more important over time, and I would like to use this customer to “get smart”, and prepare for future business of this sort.

 

Any practical knowledge would be greatly appreciated. I am happy to exchange information on commercial demand management offerings.

 

Peter

 

Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D.

President, SolarGnosis

1107 Fair Oaks Ave., Ste. 351

South Pasadena, CA 91030

(323) 839-6108

NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional #031806-26

peter.parrish at solargnosis.com

 

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