Shipments Of The Plug & Play Orison Energy Storage System Slated For End Of 2020

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In 2015, Eric Clifton envisioned a home energy storage appliance that simply plugged into the wall. He founded Orison Inc and in 2016, launched a Kickstarter campaign to let customers lock in an order for the 2.2 kWh wall-mounted appliance.

Image courtesy: Octillion

Fast forward a few years, and Orison has perfected the design of the product. The company has secured a contract with Octillion Power Systems to supply batteries for the devices and the self-installable home battery he envisioned is now on the cusp of becoming a reality. “This is an ideal energy-storage solution for homeowners or small businesses, because the system is simple to install, lightweight and scalable to optimize your energy and to ensure power is where you need it during an outage,” said Eric Clifton, founder and CEO of Orison.

To make the systems capable of being a plug and play device, installable by homeowners, Orison broke the unit down into smaller subassemblies. The batteries supplied by Octillion, for example, are cut into 1.1 kWh modules weighing in at 22 pounds. The result is a modular home energy storage system that not only makes installation a breeze, it makes building a system sized exactly to the needs of the home practical. These 1.1 kWh battery modules were the result of a joint effort between Orison and Octillion. They had to develop a custom battery pack that not only met their performance needs, but fit in their slim form factor.

“Octillion was our vendor of choice because of their ability to provide customizable solutions based on our needs, while still being able to scale to meet our mass-production throughput and pricing requirements,” Clifton said. “This unique battery design, while challenging to develop and certify, is compact enough that it allows for home or business owners to do their own installations, a first for the industry.”

The Orison modular battery system. Image courtesy: Octillion

The intelligent energy storage system harvests and stores excess generation from an on site renewable resource for later use. Stored power can be used to stretch daytime solar generation to cover the home’s evening energy consumption or serve as a backup power source for critical loads in the event of a grid failure. The slick 2.2 kWh Orison Panel comes with a starting price tag of $2,200 and boasts a maximum power output of 1.8 kW.

A Orison energy storage system starts with the master unit of the bunch, the Orison Panel. It is a self contained unit, housing the master storage unit where the two Octillion-supplied battery modules live, a battery management system, a bi-directional inverter, and the necessary communications hardware. To extend the system, homeowners can purchase additional Orison Panel+ units for a lower price of $1,600. Up to 5 Panel+ units can be added to each Orison Panel for a total storage capacity of 13.2 kWh. The Panel+ units look to the master storage unit for instructions to ensure all of the Panels are singing off the same sheet of music.

“The Orison system saves customers money, conserves energy, provides a safety net and benefits the grid’s efficiency, making it a ground-breaking solution to help the expansion of solar energy,” Paul Beach, president, Octillion said. “We’re really pleased to be working with a partner like Orison on such an innovative system.”

Each Orison Panel and Panel+ unit boasts an AC round trip efficiency of 85-90%. That’s essentially the loss in power as a result of the conversion from the home’s AC power to the DC power stored by the batteries and back again when the time comes to use the stored power.

After years in product design and company building, Orison is on the cusp of the first deliveries to customers. They expect to make the first shipments to customers in the US and Europe in “late 2020” with other regions getting the goods in early 2021.

For more information about Orison and its energy storage products, head over to Orison.com. To learn more about Octillion and its battery production for the energy storage and automotive markets, head over to Octillion.us.


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Kyle Field

I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. As an activist investor, Kyle owns long term holdings in Tesla, Lightning eMotors, Arcimoto, and SolarEdge.

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