A new Canadian Solar battery product will be unveiled at the RE+ conference in Anaheim, California, a large event that will bring together leaders in renewable energy and clean technologies from Sept. 19-22.
The battery is a utility-scale lithium-ferro-phosphate (LFP) battery with a 2.8 MWh energy capacity. LFP chemistry is hailed for cutting the risk of thermal runway, or fires, that can be problematic in other lithium-based battery systems.
Called the SolBank, the system is designed for safety, reliability, and bankability. The battery enclosure contains liquid cooling mechanisms and humidity control, and active balancing battery management systems. The company said the technology complies with the latest international safety standards.
Canadian Solar’s majority owned subsidiary CSI Energy Storage produces the unit in Jiangsu Province, China. The current annual battery manufacturing output capacity is 2.5 GWh and is expected to reach 10 GWh by the end of 2023.
Image: Canadian Solar
The SolBank product will be displayed at Canadian Solar’s booth #2204, Anaheim Convention Center, Halls A-D.
CSI Energy Storage also provides full commissioning and integration services, turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction project execution and long-term operational service and capacity maintenance. As of Q2 2022, the company’s system integration total pipeline reached 11 GWh, including 861 MWh under long-term service agreements, 1.9 GWh under construction or contracted and an additional earlier stage pipeline of 8.2 GWh.
“Our manufacturing capacity in battery storage will spur the continued growth of our battery storage solutions business, which will in turn enhance the synergies with our battery storage project development business,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, chair and CEO of Canadian Solar. “Solar plus battery storage will be one of the key solutions to combat climate change.”
Residential battery
Additionally, Canadian Solar recently announced an all-in-one residential battery and hybrid inverter, called the EP Cube, also to be displayed at RE+.
One unit can scale from 9.9 kWh to 19.9 kWh in capacity, and up to six units can be connected in parallel, achieving 119.9 kWh of storage and 45.6 kW output, said the company. This is more than enough to fully power the average home with high-surge-current appliances and AC units.
EP Cube is designed to be lightweight and easy to install, featuring all-inclusive components and self-configuration for fast commissioning. Each battery module weighs less than 70 lbs., significantly lower than many residential units, which can weigh upwards of 300 lbs. The battery module measures only 6.25 inches thick and is NEMA 4X rated for both indoor and outdoor use.
The battery is compatible with the EP Cube app, which allows homeowners to monitor production and consumption in real time. Homeowners have access to their energy management through the app, and installers use the app to set up and troubleshoot the system. Updates are made remotely to the battery management system.
Over the past two decades, Canadian Solar has delivered over 76 GW of solar modules to customers across the world. Since entering the project development business in 2010, the company has developed, built and connected over 6.8 GW in over 20 countries across the world. Currently, the company has about 311 MW of solar projects in operation, 5.3 GW of projects under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 21 GW of projects in pipeline (mid- to early-stage).
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It’s good to see more companies getting into this business. Even though they’re growing by leaps and bounds, Tesla can’t do it all! These storage technologies will be what enables solar and wind energy to eventually completely replace dirty fossil fuels. Combined with battery-electric vehicles, we have a very clean and bright future to look forward to. The fossil fuel industry will no doubt continue to put their bogus FUD out there about mining minerals for batteries, etc but they’ll never show you a real comparison of their dirty coal mining, oil drilling, or fracking and all its pollution, along with the dirty refining of gasoline and diesel and then finally burning all of it in very inefficient internal combustion engines that spew noxious gasses and cancer-causing particulates everywhere they go. Electric is taking over at an exponential rate and it’s going to catch a huge number of people by surprise.
Great to see more battery storage but sad to see so much lithium being wasted for stationary use.
The logarithmic demand for lithium is already begun–EV cars, trucks, trains, boats and even aircraft to some degree. Better, cheaper, heavier and more fire resistant options are a wiser choice for stationary storage.