LAS VEGAS - For years, the residential energy storage market has been quiet and dominated by one big name. More companies than ever are rushing to sell these products, and some of the new competitors are brands people have already heard of.
Duracell's famous copper and black colors now adorn solar products. The always-on Energizer Rabbit is meant to provide your home with clean energy when the lights go out. Anker, a leading manufacturer of chargers and power supplies for personal electronic devices, has used its design and consumer design expertise to produce the Solix X-1 solar battery system, which joins its line of portable batteries already on the market.
All this new competition is key to making rooftop solar a more valuable source of clean energy. Home solar panels generate their clean energy when the sun shines. Rooftop solar allows homes to withstand grid outages without loss, but also allows clean energy to be shared with the grid during times of demand. Home battery grids provide plenty of energy, keep Hawaii's lights on after large coal-fired power plants fail, and save Vermont millions of dollars in grid costs each year.
The Department of Energy wants to accelerate the development of a network of customer-controlled energy devices, also known as virtual power plants. A "start of business" report released by the Department of Energy last week detailed how growing these plants could reduce the need for fossil fuel power generation and save money by leveraging what communities are doing to decarbonize the grid of energy. buy them But for this decentralized concept to work, customers need a supply of products they actually want to buy.
Predicting consumer preferences is difficult, but at least the offer is emerging. At last week's RE+ green energy show in Las Vegas, which drew 40,000 people, a walk through the massive two-story exhibit hall revealed what you might call the Cambrian explosion of home batteries, if that weren't important to to be emphasized. references to explosions when discussing lithium-ion batteries.
"It was incredible how many storage options were featured at RE+ this year," said Spencer Fields, director of online solar and energy storage market research at EnergySage.
Many suppliers sell rechargeable batteries for the whole family. Most of these newcomers are different from each other at this point: anonymous brands selling anonymous boxes that do the same thing. Home depot retailers have not learned from the Las Vegas experience, which attracts even savvy network technology analysts with its kaleidoscopic colors and sounds.
However, these batteries now have a ten-year tax credit under the Inflation Suppression Act. This year's seemingly never-ending climate catastrophe has made backup power more valuable than ever, and new regulations in California, the nation's largest residential solar and storage market, have made batteries key to rooftop solar sales. Manufacturers outside the traditional solar industry have taken notice.
Democratization of energy conservation in residential premises
Tesla didn't invent the home battery, but Elon Musk popularized the concept in 2015 by launching the first Powerwall. Tesla continued to dominate the US consumer storage market in the early years, especially when the second-generation product was introduced in late 2016, increasing storage capacity and lowering prices compared to competitors. At the time, Tesla promised an integrated inverter, but it took time to get there: the company made headlines last week by promising the same in the upcoming Powerwall 3.
Mercedes-Benz tried to follow Tesla's lead in home power from car batteries, but quickly gave up. Other early adopters continue to build their own household battery brands for American homes: German startup Sonnen, Hank Rogers Tetris supplier Blue Planet Energy, South Korean battery company LG. But the home market, where most customers wanted a single brand, still left a lot to be desired: Whenever Tesla fell behind on shipments, which often happened because the company prioritized making electric cars, the delays spread to a network of installers. solar.
However, the home storage market has continued to diversify over the years.
EnergySage regularly analyzes consumer preferences based on solar panel and energy storage proposals generated by installers on its comparison platform. When the storage market started in the summer of 2020, Tesla was still at the top of the battery list, followed by LG Chem. But later that year, the Korean company recalled several home storage systems over fire concerns, dampening enthusiasm for the product.
Also, leading solar microinverter manufacturer Enphase is gaining market share by offering modular batteries.
In the first half of this year, Enphase was the leading stock, followed by Tesla. Rounding out the top five are solar inverter leader SolarEdge, newcomer FranklinWH and high-efficiency solar panel brand SunPower. According to Fields, the list shows the advantages of solar companies that focus on energy storage: "You can buy inverters and batteries from one company with a warranty and an application." In SunPower's case, the solar panels are manufactured in-house.
This new and more diverse battery ecosystem also has room to grow. Almost all home batteries are installed via rooftop solar panels, and Fields notes that the distributed solar industry itself is widespread. The large national players do not control a large share of the market and the "long tail" of small installers control a significant share of the market. This creates an opportunity for many storage providers to find symbiotic partners.
Still the same battery?
Although Darwin's competition has led to an extraordinary diversity of species, it is likely that native swarm competition will do the same.
A few years ago, brands like Sonnen and Blue Planet distinguished themselves by promoting the more flame-resistant chemical lithium ferrophosphate (LFP); Everyone loves it these days. Modularity seemed new and exciting when customers could choose a Powerwall or two, but now batteries that can be assembled from Lego bricks are commonplace. It is true that homogeneity is not only superficial.
"[Most of these products] use the same cells or get them from the same company," Fields said. Chinese manufacturer CATL won the LFP game, so its batteries are used in many consumer storage products. While repackaging the same core product, home storage brands need to find something different to differentiate themselves.
Fields noted several differences: the inverter's power rating, which limits the amount of devices the battery can power at once; quality of user-oriented applications; Integration with intelligent energy management systems such as Span or Lumin; ease of installation and commissioning (more profit for the installer, but the customer has to save on labor costs).
Brand recognition can set some battery boxes apart from the competition. I independently mentioned seeing Duracell and Energizer at this event to several convention attendees; I started looking for them instead of new brands that no one was talking about.
There are many rooftop solar panels sold on kitchen counters, "What better kitchen counter brand than Duracell?" suggests Aakar Patel, president of Power Center, which licenses the Duracell brand for its line of home storage products.
Likewise, Energizer does not make storage bags bearing its name; This is done by 8 Star Energy. At a minimum, the license agreement means that the home storage system must meet the quality and performance required by Duracell or Energizer to be granted access to the logo. This can be considered a differentiator in an industry where almost everyone brands battery cells made by someone else.
Anker is a brand to watch to see if the consumer brand can leverage its expertise in the most successful home storage products.
It has become a new direct-to-consumer brand and will launch with "massive lead generation" from its tech-savvy fan base, said Eric Villains, head of global communications at Anker Innovations. But homeowners can't buy energy storage online, as Anker has done with its electronic chargers and batteries; This type of operation requires the help of a qualified installer who knows how to work with the equipment. Anker must now form alliances with solar installers to supply customers with Anker batteries.
"We are in discussions with installers and distributors," Willins said. The brand made its first appearance at the US Solar Industry Conference in Las Vegas, and "we learned a lot."
Anker durable batteries for home use are not yet on the market. They're currently in beta testing in the US and are working towards a commercial launch early next year, when the company decides it's ready to launch. This will allow the product to come out in time for the year, which is sure to be the biggest in the energy storage market.
