Canberra’s Battery Test Centre has been going a couple of years now. What do the results so far tell us about the state of the home battery market?

I am very happy.  I just found out there is a battery testing centre in Canberra.  Who would have thought there would be something useful in Canberra?  Besides, of course, for the Federal Government and the bureaucracy that’s necessary for the functioning of a modern representative democracy.¹ [Read more…]

If you order a Tesla Powerwall 2 home battery system, according to a Tesla spokesperson, you will now have to wait until early next year to have it delivered.  This means the supply of Powerwalls for new Australian orders will be halted for at least 7 months.  If these turn out to be Tesla months then your guess as to when they will be available is as good as mine. [Read more…]

Will Super Capacitor Energy Storage Save The World?

Note from Finn: People have asked me if I would recommend buying a ‘super capacitor’ over a conventional battery. My short answer is no. Personally I think the technology is too new to consider it in a residential application. As Ronald says at the end of the post: “…they are a new thing and sometimes new things have problems that aren’t apparent at first.”  Buyer beware.

Australian company Arvio is now selling a supercapacitor energy storage module.  If you go to their site you can see the Kilowatt Labs Sirius module that stores 3.55 kilowatt-hours of electricity on sale for $4,950 including GST – here’s how it looks: [Read more…]

If you buy the wrong battery system for your three-phase home your electricity bill will not go down nearly as much as you expect. And with the economic return of battery systems being pretty marginal in even the best case scenario, it is super important that your battery gives you the best returns possible. [Read more…]

And you thought batteries were meant to be getting cheaper every year?

Sorry I’ve been slow in reporting this, but back in February Tesla raised the price of a Powerwall 2 in the United States by 400 Mickey Mouse dollars; an increase from US$5,500 to US$5,900.  We’ve also copped it sweet here in Australia and the price has increased by $600 to $9,600 before installation.  The only mitigating circumstance I can see is that all Tesla Powerwall 2 battery systems now come with full backup capability.  It’s no longer an optional feature. [Read more…]

Powershop Reveals Dollar Value Of Reposit Payments For Exporting Battery Power To Grid During ‘Critical Peaks’

Reposit is a smart controller that helps households make more effective use of battery systems.  One advantage Reposit provides is during certain — very limited — periods of time, you can be paid $1 for each kilowatt-hour of electricity your battery exports to the grid.  Reposit calls these payments GridCredits. [Read more…]

If you are buying a solar battery – go in with your eyes wide open.

I’ve been publishing thoughts on the solar industry since 2009. And since Tesla announced their Powerwall battery to great media hype in May 2015, a lot of those thoughts have concerned batteries.

Unfortunately, a lot of the facts I’ve published about batteries, their economics and their environmental impacts have not gone down well with some parts of the solar industry, generally the parts that have bet their future on selling lots of batteries in the short to medium term. [Read more…]