JuiceBox Energy’s 8.6-kWh Product Expands Electrical Energy Storage Marketplace
Electrical energy storage tops the wish list for a growing number of photovoltaic panel owners who sadly witness the death of photons each time the sun sets. Photons, the items that generate electricity and make the world of rooftop solar energy possible at all, cease to exist in darkness.
“Basically, photons are the fuel for PV. They are also what we call light from the sun,” says physicist John Perlin, author of “Let It Shine, The 6000-Year History of Solar Energy.”
As such, night-time — including heavily clouded days — has long spurred the quest for affordable batteries or alternative energy storage devices that might make renewable solar electricity available when it is needed.
Now, JuiceBox Energy has developed its new 8.6-kWh lithium-ion energy storage system that can be used for both solar energy storage and smart home connectivity, and bringing the company into the growing energy storage market.
According to the JuiceBox announcement, distributed energy generation is at a crossroad in many locations as renewable energy net metering policies evolve, requiring customers to sell their excess solar energy to the grid at wholesale rates during the day and buy back energy in the evening at peak retail rates. It provides value to both the customer and the utility by reducing peak power consumption and fluctuations on the grid. And when the grid goes down, the JuiceBox customer can operate indefinitely in an off-grid mode with the solar and battery system providing power to the home’s critical loads.
“The JuiceBox system is an innovative new home energy storage and energy management system,” said Mark Byington, President, Cobalt Power Systems in Mountain View, CA. “Cobalt Power has multiple JuiceBox installations in progress, and we are excited to be at the forefront of delivering intelligent grid-tied energy storage to our solar customers.”
The JuiceBox Energy system is maintenance-free with a minimum 10-year life. The battery, system controller and web-interface are housed in a custom designed indoor/outdoor NEMA 3R enclosure. The system is highly integrated with a bi-directional inverter/charger to enable quick and simple installation while ensuring redundant safety controls and an extended operating life.
The product is designed for rapid wall-mounted installation and communicates to web-based applications via a robust cellular connection for cloud-based monitor, control and remote firmware update. The high-reliability connection enables JuiceBox to help customers keep up with evolving smart grid standards as well as tariff rate structures managed by utilities. And as an increasing number of JuiceBox systems come on line, customers can visually see their system connected within the JuiceBox Energy Network, and also elect to participate in future aggregated demand response markets.
JuiceBox reports it is providing regular sales and installation training, and systems are available for order to certified installers upon completion of the training. “Our Silicon Valley engineering team comprised of automotive electric vehicle and power semiconductor industry veterans is on a mission to deliver the highest quality, long lasting energy storage systems available,” said Neil Maguire, CEO at JuiceBox Energy. “The JuiceBox 8.6 kWh system is a safe, reliable clean technology that puts the customer in charge of their renewable energy. We look forward to supporting solar installers and their customers nationwide with our new residential energy storage system.”
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The main and still unanswered question in 2 characters:
$ ?
totally agree, not a word.
Not on the web site either! Oh it isn’t, if you have to ask, but …
Did a search on the site for price and this popped up. Guess as you say, if you have to ask you don’t want to know.
🙂
“Search Results for: Price
Energy Storage Financials
Purchase JuiceBox Energy Storage systems & Schneider Electric products may be purchased directly from our network of certified installers. For more information on your nearest installer please email us at info@juiceboxsolar.com. PACE Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is an innovative way to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades to buildings. Interested property owners evaluate […]”
Price would be very helpful. Thanks.
My guess is it leans on the pricey side.
No price, no details… looks like it’s just another traffic generator on the internet…
Wasted time and bandwidth without the pricing for the unit. Totally crap.
Let’s guess. $8500.
At $1,000 per kilowatt-hour of capacity, a 5% discount rate, a ten year lifespan, and ignoring charge/discharge losses (which aren’t likely to be high) it will store electricity at a cost of about 36 cents a kilowatt-hour. To start paying for itself in Australia (the best market for home energy storage) it’s going to have to drop in price to about half that. And while I hope this system isn’t too expensive, ones similar to it are at price points that are not yet close to paying for themselves, with lead acid batteries being far more cost effective. However, these types of systems are the way of the future, as we know from the costs of electric car battery packs that this kind of home energy storage can get a lot cheaper.
Remember it is a guess. It is stupidly overpriced I expect. It can be done for $3500. But why are they putting it out now? Because Tesla with put out a 10 kw pack on April 30, or rather display it, and will begin to sell it within 6 months. At this time people are ignorant of price and have nothing to compare the price to, so juicebox has to make a move. It is probably hopeless, scale manufacturing will crush all competitors.
Balqon will sell you a 10 kwh lifepo4 battery bank excluding inverter for less than $4000. The inverter is about 40cents watt. So about $5000 total. Now maybe juicebox will pleasantly surprise us and we will store juice for 15 cents/kwh, that would be a nice start. But I forsee 6cents storage soon. The best lead acid (industrial quality) sells for about 13 cents kwh without inverter, but will last 18-24 years and have 10 year warranties. Iithium must outdo that to catch on.
I almost forgot: Aqiuon are for sale now at about $475 kwh. 3000cycles to 100% discharge. Another 3000 left at slightly reduced efficiencies. Non flammable, immune to abuse. That is in the 12centkwh range.
Sodium ion home storage for 12 cents per stored kilowatt-hour would be great. Unfortunately Aquion’s batteries are a bit large for a house at the moment. Tesla may do an excellent job of bringing down the cost of storage in the short term. However, their batteries aren’t perfect for the quite small on grid storage systems that will have the quickest pay back times. Tesla went big on battery packs and that avoids some problems involved with being small, such as the need to be able to constantly rapidly discharage. But they might do better at this than I expect.
My price point will be 15 cents installed. I am continuing to wait….
A private labeled Tesla battery system..?
According to a press release JuceBox has an agreement with Nexcon Technology of South Korea. They produce the battery modules that JuceBox is selling.
Will utilities let us charge this at might during super off peak hours so we can use it for on peak hours? I have a solar system, and I’d almost prefer using it this way on hot days when I’m home.
Where I am there are currently no rules against doing this. BUT I think that the current power producers will try to prevent it in the future. In the US if the box is UL rated then they will not have any way to prevent it from being attached to the grid.
I suspect that the price that they are going to pay for my solar output will continue to decline, and that holding on to that power to prevent peak power draw events and to reduce my draw at peak times after the sun goes down will be the reason that I get storage.
I can’t predict what utilities might do in the future. Organizations do not away make the best decisions, but…
The reason that midday electricity prices are high is because demand exceeds moderate priced supply and utilities have to access the more expensive. Conversely, late night prices are low because demand can be met using only the least expensive sources.
I’m not sure that utilities would be harmed were a large number of customers to install storage, purchase off peak and then use less peak power. Likely what would happen is that the price difference between peak and offpeak would narrow. Demand would be more constant around the clock.