Electriq Power, a residential energy storage startup, just closed $3 million more in an equity round from a number of unidentified angel investors. This follows a seed round in 2018, which raised $6 million in financing from GreenSoil Building Innovation Fund and others, according to Crunchbase.
Electriq builds energy storage and management hardware for homes and small businesses. The company’s smallest modular product is an integrated 13.4 kWh system.
The San Leandro, California-based startup is expanding its battery options to include the safer lithium iron phosphate chemistry, according to a release, which adds that the company “was also recently approved for UL9540 system level storage certification in three factories: two in the U.S. and one in China. This certification paves the way for system sales in every market throughout the U.S.”
The Electriq system includes a battery, hybrid battery/solar inverter, home energy management system, and an energy meter for home back-up and energy management.
Frank Magnotti, CEO of the startup, said, “Interest in our solutions has risen steeply as more people work from home and see the necessity of resilient home power.” Long ago, Magnotti co-founded Comverge, a demand response pioneer and one of the earlier VC-funded greentech firms.
The firm works with Generations Credit Union and Sunlight Financial to offer loans and financing for its products.
In 2018, the company offered its 11 kWh system, including inverter, for $8,999, according to reports. Compare that to Sonnen at $26,000. That pricing is no longer mentioned on its website.
Here are some of the competitors in the residential energy storage fray.
- Panasonic’s residential energy storage systems are available in an AC-coupled and a DC-coupled version.
- Yotta Energy’s distributed batteries mount under solar modules.
- Tesla‘s Powerwall
- LG Chem’s Resu
- SolPad gave pv magazine an update on its distributed storage and solar product.
- KiloVault’s 7.5-kW-hr wall-mount energy storage unit for residential and commercial applications is based on a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery chemistry. The 7.5 kw-hr unit sells for $4,995 at the Alternative Energy Store and weighs 207 pounds.
- NeoVolta’s 24 kw-hr residential storage entry, according to the CEO, has met the Tesla price, while giving better performance — he quoted the company’s 8.4 kW unit at $18,500 fully installed.
Prior to the pandemic, residential storage and solar-plus-storage had been on a high-growth path, driven by resiliency concerns and the California solar mandate.
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It would seem that residential storage would be cheaper than EV storage given that kwh/kg isn’t nearly as relevant and BSM tech development costs have already been baked in on the EV development side. Standardization of prepackaged all-in-one systems in plug-and-play center: battery / wind+solar+hydro input / combiner box / BSM / DC load center / EV charger / inverter / Wi-Fi logic smart use control center / generator back-up / AC critical load and general load switching capabilities.
I could see the entire private energy system prepackaged in a unit in the size of a refrigerator. Hookup ins to utility mains / NG-Propane / solar panels out to breaker panel and Wi-Fi plugs on selected house appliances, -system for the rest.