Panasonic presenta batería de doméstica capaz de almacenar el consumo de una semana

Panasonic’s new home battery could store a week’s-worth of electricity

Panasonic’s new home battery could store a week’s-worth of electricity | VentureBeat

Panasonic is charging into the green space headlong — first with deals to supply batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles — and now announcing that it will launch a massive lithium-ion storage battery capable of powering an average home for up to a week, the company says.

This is significant for two reasons. First, if home batteries like this one become commonplace, renewable sources of energy like rooftop solar and residential turbines could finally take off. The biggest roadblock to their adoption is that they are intermittent; reliable storage is needed to make them effective. Second, if affordable storage is achieved on the home-level, there might be less need for grid-scale storage, which is pricier and harder to accomplish.

The announcement is hastened by Panasonic’s acquisition of a more than 50 percent stake in Sanyo, making the company a battery manufacturing powerhouse that could trounce almost everyone else in the market, including A123Systems, Johnson Controls-Saft, Valence Technologies, and others. Becoming the earliest entrant into the home storage space would solidify its dominance.

Panasonic, which says it has already thoroughly tested this technology, plans to bundle its storage device with a home energy monitoring system that would allow users to view how much power they are using and how much it is costing them right on their television displays. This could make the company a major player in the smart grid arena as well.

Depending on how successful Panasonic is at marketing its household battery (and bringing down the cost), it could become a formidable competitor for fuel-cell makers like Clear Edge Power. Fuel cells also allow for low-emission operations, converting natural gas into electricity and recycled heat. But they don’t store electricity for use later, which is a major need for alternative energies to gain traction.

Panasonic, which scored a deal to supply batteries to Tesla Motors in October, has already successfully pushed automotive battery makers out of the market, like Imara, which shuttered earlier this month. Valence, being kept afloat by a new contract with Smith Electric Vehicles, could be next if it doesn’t move fast. In any case, it will have a head start, with Panasonic’s storage system not hitting stores until 2011.

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Panasonic y Sanyo lanzarán una batería que proporcionará electricidad para una casa durante una semana


Panasonic y Sanyo lanzarán una batería que proporcionará electricidad para una casa durante una semana

por Alberto Ballestin 23 / 12 / 2009

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Desde hace tiempo, arquitectos y ciudadanos en general sueñan con el día en que nuestras casas dejen de ser consumidoras netas de electricidad y se conviertan en generadoras. Un buen paso hacia ello es el creciente uso de paneles solares de gran eficiencia y, en los casos donde es posible, la instalación de pequeñas estaciones eólicas. Ahora bien; ni todos los días hace sol, ni Eolo tiene ganas de soplar cuando a nosotros nos apetece, así que algo habrá que pensar para los momentos en los que no es posible hacer uso de la red eléctrica. Aquí es donde llegan Panasonic y Sanyo al rescate.

Las compañías japonesas, recientemente fusionadas como tal vez recordarás, piensan tener listo para el año 2011 un paquete acumulador capaz de almacenar la electricidad necesaria para mantener en funcionamiento un hogar (japonés, suponemos) durante nada menos que una semana, lo que sin duda ya habrá puesto los dientes largos a más de un eco-consumidor. Esta superbatería doméstica utilizará la sobradamente conocida tecnología de iones de litio, e incorporará alguna clase de interfaz para poder controlar el consumo eléctrico desde el propio televisor. ¿Precios? Ni idea, pero suponemos que una instalación completa seguirá siendo más económica que esos generadores nucleares en miniatura que ya hemos visto por ahí. Horizon, te toca mover ficha.

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