*This is an amended version of the original article. A table has been removed, due to the risk of prices listed on it going out of date, and the price of the WattGrid battery has been adjusted to $11,999, to include GST.
Another battery storage offering is set to launch onto the Australian market, targeting the nearly 1.5 million solar households looking to make the most of their rooftop solar generation. The 10kWh system –
The home storage system – which will be launched in Adelaide next Wednesday, and marketed under the name WattGrid – comprises a tubular gel variant of lead acid battery, a hybrid (bidirectional) inverter, and a software “app” called WattsHappening, which allows the customer to monitor the unit in real time and control it remotely.
The system is designed to optimise solar PV self-consumption; with excess energy used to charge the batteries, and then the batteries used to supplement the house load when the PV energy is inadequate (you can see how this works in the chart below, which, it should be noted, was recorded in the Brisbane winter).
When PV energy output is insufficient to support connected loads, the system automatically gets energy from the batteries if there is sufficient charge. If the battery capacity is insufficient to meet consumption requirements, electricity will be drawn from the grid.
The WattGrid inverter also has a UPS function (uninterrupted power supply), so in event of blackout the UPS will support designated backup circuits.
To the cost; the battery system will retail for $11,999 (not including installation), a price which AllGrid says is well below current competitors, Including the Tesla Powerwall.
The company says the 10kW battery, when combined with 3-4kW of rooftop solar, will offer an average of 12-17kWh per day, or around 70 per cent saving on a household’s quarterly electricity bill.
AllGrid has been is in discussions with the Mayor’s office in Adelaide City Council, where it will launch the 10kWh product, to take advantage of the recently announced $5000 grant to Adelaide City residents and small business purchasing a storage system.
The company says it expects other councils to introduce similar incentives in the near future.
“Although Australia’s climate change policies and renewable energy industry are very much maligned at the moment, we are incredibly excited to be at the start of the wave of the storage revolution that is about to happen,” said AllGrid spokesperson Deborah Oberon.
“This is truly a game changing moment and it is with great pride we are releasing this as an Indigenous product thereby representing the union of Indigenous understanding of sustainability with modern technology,” Oberon said.
“Funding to this scheme has also been contributed to by the South Australian government. Currently up to $5000 rebate is available for the purchase of storage, and up to a further $1000 is available for the purchase of panels. With solar and storage in place, residents can expect to reduce their grid consumption by 50-70 per cent.
“We like to call this the Personal Renewable Energy target (P-RET)! We are hoping the South Australia initiatives will inspire other councils and state governments to implement similar programs.”
New energy storage products are in the pipeline, including AllGrid Energy commercial systems, which range in size from 100kW up to 1000kW.
Also on the commercial energy storage front, WattGrid says it has signed a partnership agreement with Sun Edison to fund its commercial offerings through Power Purchase Agreements, allowing them to offer the battery systems at a cents per kWh rate, rather than as an up front purchase.
WattGrid will be launched next week at the Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Wednesday 2 September at 2pm, by South Australia’s minister for industry and innovation, and indigenous affairs, Kim Maher.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
This post was published on August 26, 2015 12:31 am
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Nice article, thanks. I think the most valid way to compare the cost of energy storage from one technology/vendor to another is the levelised cost of energy storage (as discussed here: http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/levelising-the-cost-of-stored-energy-why-kwh-just-doesnt-cut-it-66062) as this considers the energy which can be delivered by the storage over its lifetime.
Two parameters not included in the comparison table are the usable depth-of-discharge and the number of cycles to failure, both of which affect the levelised cost. I note from the text of the article that the battery is discharged to a minimum of 40% of its capacity suggesting that only the top 60% of the battery (6kWh) can be used (unless of course the quoted 10kWh capacity has already taken this into consideration).
Undoubtably, it will be designed to deliver 10kw in the short term but not beyond the 40% Mark.
Appropriate question, but realistically may not matter that much in the value equation despite the fact that lithium batteries will cope with a deeper discharge. The cost per unit storage will outweigh the differences..
There are plenty of other good reasons to consider alternatives to lead acid.
It will be interesting to see how this offering stacks up in the greenest state (the ACT).....
I am somewhat confused with the warranties and the battery sizes. Not too long ago I inquired about the AGL battery size in kWh, wanting to know if the product came with DoD included or excluded when referring to size of battery. I was told that this was size before DoD, and that this is common practice in industry, i.e. they quote the size of battery before DoD is considered. Now if this is correct, then the Tesla and the WattGrid batteries with DoDs and the two technologies (Li-ion & lead acid) taken into consideration should have roughly same kWh storage potential. But, one has a 5 yr warranty while the other has a 10 yr warranty. This would mean one has 2x the number of cycles than the other. Further, there is a notable weight difference (~7x), adding presumably quite s lot to installation and requiring more space considerations. Unless there is something I'm overlooking or misinterpreting, you are saving a few thousand in the beginning just to lose closer to $10k in the longer term.
Hi Alen,
It would seem that the comparison table has now been removed from the article, as well as the reference to the minimum SoC being 40%.
I think the complications around usable DoD, warranty liftetime (and the cycle-life which this is based on) are a good argument for using a levelised cost of energy storage figure for comparison, which I think gives a reasonable means for comparing the cost of what the battery is able to deliver over its life.
There are important considerations not included in levelised cost of energy storage; such as the round-trip efficiency, and the rate at which energy can be stored/released, but for cost comparisons I think it is the most appropriate figure.
Yes, that would be right Alen, a short-term saving - note, though, there are top-range lead-acid batteries presently serving remote communities in northern Australia that have 10-year warranties, sized so they can operate with limited DoD, check with Bushlight for more information.
This could be a smart strategy. By the time the WattGrid cells need replacing, the market will have matured a lot, and replacement cells could be very cheap. They could be lead-acid or lithium (the latter would need some control updates to manage the cells differently). The balance of system (housing, wiring, racks, inverter, control system) is probably well over half the value and would remain in place. So the bill in 5 years would be much less than another $10k.
I was given the spec sheet for this unit (titled 10kW instead of 10kWh - the inverter is 4.6kW) and spoke with the owner about the unit documented as it didn't actually do what he said it does....after 10-15 minutes he informed me that the 'new' version will but its spec sheet wasn't available yet. The last three pages was a copy and paste from a research paper out of Iran from three years ago and was irrelevant to the inverter spec sheet as it discussed the use of Sulphur in batteries - dare I say it but as a farmer living off grid I know what bullshit smells like.
Give me a call on this one and i can clear up any myths about the product, understandably new product,trying to get to market. call me on 0409 844 118
How can they possibly call this an indigenous product when all of the cheapy components are made overseas? Latronic Sunpower, a 30 yr old Aust company has all the components they need (and more) and have the benefit of local support and a factory for repairs right here in Australia!! Wouldn't it be best for any rebate funds to stay inside the country rather than filtering over to the supplies in China? Check the Latronics SATS (Solar Array Transfer Switch) and Fusions new Aquion battery system I think it uses an Australian made rackmount inverter, much better for Australia on so many levels.
Yes, false advertising as usual - as is the lack of full specs.. Disappointing
At $12k it is literally twice the price of the powerwall (which is earmarked around 3500 usd). How can we do better?
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