PV manufacturers Hanwha Q Cells and Sunpower have both signed deals to bring home energy storage to residential solar customers in Europe and in the US respectively.
Hanwha Q Cells has teamed with German solar monitoring, smart energy and feed-in management specialist Solare Datensysteme to provide a complete energy storage system for residential and commercial markets in Europe.
Hanwha Q Cells’ branded energy storage solution Q.HOME+ ESS-G1 can be operated via the ‘Solar-Log’ energy management system from Solare Datensysteme, providing PV monitoring, intelligent feed-in management and smart energy solutions that allow customers to optimise their power consumption through effective energy management.
The Q.HOME+ ESS-G1 energy storage series is said to be available in three versions with capacities of 3.6kWh, 6kWh or 8kWh. Customers can choose the best version for their household or business, depending on individual average energy consumption. All three versions feature a high-quality lithium-ion battery, combined with an integrated inverter and battery charger. The units offer a 10-year product warranty and a performance warranty of at least 80% after 10 years, the company said.
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Sunpower teams with sonnen in USA
Silicon Valley-headquartered SunPower has announced a tie-up with residential and commercial energy storage system and services provider sonnen, where SunPower’s Equinox home solar systems will be paired with the latter’s energy storage.
Available through SunPower’s participating installation contractors in the US, the pair talked up their respective achievements in announcing the deal, including sonnen’s world market-leading position of around 30,000 energy storage units sold and the high system efficiencies of the Equinox solution. SunPower’s solar systems are also compatible with Tesla’s energy storage battery systems.
While sonnen appears to be a fast-moving entity in its own right in its home territory of Germany and latterly also in other markets including Australia, the company said that in the States, the storage provider is still reliant on “premier solar companies” that have dealer networks and customer aftercare in place.
Similarly, while sonnen is marketing its SonnenCommunity aggregated ‘energy-sharing’ offering directly to private customers in Europe, in the US, the company still works with established utilities to deploy systems in partnership, as was seen in the Mandalay Homes project in Arizona a while back. In April, the company also revealed a strategic partnership to offer a package of solar and energy storage to households in France with utility Engie.
The Hanwha Q Cells and SunPower announcements follow recently reported new entries into the residential markets from providers including Varta and Nissan in the UK, while German maker Voltstorage recently unveiled a redox flow battery aimed at Germany’s residential market. SolarEdge recently added virtual power plant (VPP) capabilities to its residential systems, potentially opening up the market for wider uses of home storage and inverter maker SMA just released a new version of its Sunny Boy Storage battery inverter which can increase the storage capacity of existing systems.
A recent report from GTM Research found that home storage deployments continue to rise in the US, with around 35.8MWh of energy storage deployed in the residential grid-connected segment in the first quarter of this year.
Additional reporting by Mark Osborne.
