A collaboration to make solar plug and play

Terra cotta roof with solar panels

A collaboration to make solar plug and play

5 minutes

Along with exciting developments in solar technology in recent years, a new question has emerged: How do we handle the large amounts of power being generated from this renewable source?

Practically speaking, utilities can’t indefinitely support large amounts of intermittent renewable energy feeding the grid. In fact, over two weeks during March 2017, California produced so much solar power the state had to pay Arizona to take its surplus energy to avoid overloading its own powerlines, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Coming together

U.S.-based inverter manufacturer Pika Energy teamed up with Panasonic to simplify the union of solar-generated energy and distributed, behind-the-meter storage. In June, the two companies announced the Harbor Smart Battery™ product line for solar-plus-storage. The Harbor Plus™ and Harbor Flex™ batteries promise a simpler, smarter way to store and manage clean energy.

Distributed energy storage systems are not only desirable to the end-customer, who can self-consume stored energy and use clean backup power when the grid fails. These systems are also a fundamental requirement of the continued growth of renewables on the U.S. grid. The problem has been that behind-the-meter energy storage systems have been too clumsy, too inefficient and too expensive to meaningfully scale in a maturing PV market.

Most of these legacy solar plus storage systems involve discrete components that can only communicate through lots of additional hardware. Adding to this, a recent study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that interconnection – along with acquiring permits – was among the highest non-hardware costs of delivering solar plus storage to a customer.

Advantages on both sides

This is why Pika Energy’s partnership with Panasonic makes so much sense. Combining our power electronics, which use Pika’s patented REbus DC Nanogrid™ to seamlessly integrate clean energy devices (think USB for clean power) and Panasonic’s DCB-105 lithium ion battery technology, we’ve developed the Harbor Smart Battery. This DC-coupled solar smart battery offers industry-leading performance specifications and can be installed by a single technician in less than an hour, dramatically reducing the complex processes of yesterday’s solar plus storage systems and keeping installation costs to a minimum.

Sometimes, the best products are the result of collaborations between market-leading global brands and small, creative groups that can enhance each other’s advantages. Pika Energy’s innovative electronics and agile product development, combined with Panasonic’s brand recognition and industry expertise, has resulted in a truly disruptive and fundamentally better energy storage product perfect for the full range of solar plus storage applications.

Authors
Ben Polito - Co-founder and President at Pika Energy

Earth Day 2018: decarbonized and in demand

Earth Day 2018

Earth Day 2018: decarbonized and in demand

5 minutes

Three recent developments could help to spur investment in sustainable power and accelerate the move to a new energy system. First, one of the world’s most powerful investors called on some of the largest companies to do more to “respond to broader societal challenges.” In his 2018 letter to corporate heads, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warned companies to understand the ways broad, structural trends, including climate change, would affect company growth potential.

At about the same time, New York City announced its goal of divesting its $5 billion holdings in oil companies from its pension funds. The announcement follows other states and municipalities in California, Texas and New England that have either divested in fossil fuel makers, written policy that promotes renewable energy or done both.

The third development is the rise of megastorms such as Hurricane Irma and Harvey. The storms helped to make 2017 a record year for insurance payouts—about $135 billion--linked to natural disasters and other catastrophes, according to global reinsurer Munich RE.

As thousands are expected to gather to celebrate Earth Day later this week, we ask, can there be a better time to invest in renewable energy?

Turning point for renewables

We are at a turning point as the devastation wrought by natural disasters and the dramatic cost reductions of renewable power, batteries and electric vehicle fleets are accelerating a move to a new system for energy.

Promising innovations point to a path forward. In “The Sunny Optimism of Clean Energy Shines Through Tech’s Gloom,” Wired Magazine highlights innovations such as microgrids, solar + storage tech and renewable energy calling clean power “the new Silicon Valley—filled with giddy, breathtaking ingenuity and good news.”

Panasonic plays a technology and manufacturing leadership role in the falling prices and improving performance of developments in this energy future: solar power generation, batteries used in both vehicles and for power storage and electrified driving. We may be best known for its lithium-ion batteries powering the world’s best known electric vehicle brands. In EVs, we are playing a leadership role applying manufacturing scale and technology improvements to the dramatic cost reduction in cylindrical battery cells. We’re making similar progress with prismatic batteries.

Manufacturing solar roof tiles with Tesla

Solar technology and manufacturing developments show similar promise in their ability to power the new energy future as battery tech. For instance, in Buffalo, New York Panasonic is collaborating with Tesla in the production of solar cells for building roof tiles—a product that integrates high-efficiency photovoltaics with roofing materials.

We’re also working with Toyota Motors on solar tiles for autos. Last year the global vehicle maker began using our HIT Photovoltaic for autos on Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid vehicles. These auto roof panels have a high output (approx.180 Watts) enabling them to charge the car’s lithium-ion batteries and 12 V batteries, resulting in a possible extension in travel distance and increased fuel economy.

Building energy diversity

Diversification of sources is critical to the sustainability and security of a new energy system. Hydrogen is drawing attention as an alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear power. It is the most abundant element in the universe and reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. And because the only substance created during this process is water, it is very clean. For over 20 years, Panasonic has conducted R&D on hydrogen energy. It has commercial projects in Japan and Europe and sees promise in North America.  

We’ll have more on decarbonized and in demand innovation in upcoming blogs.

Happy Earth Day!

Authors
Jeff Howell - President of Panasonic Industrial Devices Sales Company of America