Sonnen Offers New Home Energy Storage Product

Sonnen recently announced a new residential energy storage product called the eco compact. The company said the price is up to 40% less than its other energy storage products. The cost is $5,950 for the 4 kWh system, which does not include installation, but does include an inverter, a smart energy manager, and measurement technology. The system can be expanded up to 16 kWh, in 4 kWh increments. The battery is guaranteed for 10,000 cycles, or 10 years. The system has been designed to work well with home solar power systems for self-consumption.

“With the sonnenBatterie eco compact we are providing a simple, cost-effective version of our proven energy management technology that enables more solar-powered homeowners to supply up to 100% of their own power needs. As a result we expect to see a dramatic increase in the installation of storage across the country,” explained Boris von Bormann, the CEO of Sonnen.

The dimensions in inches are:

W/H/D, 4 – 8 kWh: 26/51/14
W/H/D, 10 – 16 kWh: 26/71/14.

The product’s weight does not appear to be listed in the product details on the Sonnen site, as of 7/18/2016.

Sonnen is accepting pre-orders for eco compacts now, and it is expected to start delivery at the end of Q4 2016.

The Sonnen site mentions the opportunity provided by having a home energy storage system to take advantage of using your stored electricity when rates are high, “sonnenBatterie eco allows you to engage in “rate arbitrage” – storing energy when it is cheap and running your home off the battery when rates go up.” It would be curious to see how much one potentially might save by performing this ‘arbitrage’.

For comparison’s sake, the 6.4 kWh Telsa Powerwall is $3,000, but that does not include an inverter or installation. One expert said that the new Sonnen product’s cost is in the right range, “The $6,000 price point for Sonnen’s 4 kilowatt-hour system not including installation (or roughly ~$1,500/kWh, sans installation) is competitive with other offerings in the U.S. residential market today when taking into account the fact that Sonnen’s new system is warrantied for 10,000 cycles, which is greater than the cycle life warrantied by some of their competitors,” explained Brett Simon, a GTM Research energy storage analyst.

Image Credit: Sonnen