Panasonic and new best friend Sanyo plan one week storage battery for the home

One of the big obstacles in alternative energy is that some of its primary gathering mechanisms -- solar, wind, reclaimed heat -- aren't continuously available, so no matter how much of a science lab you have bolted to your roof, you still might run out of TV electricity during a calm night's Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon. Well, Panasonic's recent buy of Sanyo brought with it some choice battery tech, and the newly joined companies think they can be the first to build and ship a storage battery for home use. The plan is to release the lithium-ion cell in 2011, with enough juice in it to power a home for a week (a Japanese home, we presume), and the battery will be paired with a system to allow the user to monitor electricity usage on their TV. Of course, fuel cells have traditionally been looked to as the great home energy storage hope, but we doubt any will be able to compete with the tried-and-true lithium-ion by the time 2011 rolls around.

[Tohe Posted Dec 23rd 2009 5:50PM]

Like others before me have said, the smart grid is a far better choice if available. I see this battery solution taking off in rural places (which is a vast market by itself). The hydrogen scheme is what the Oil companies want to sell us on. H2 can be made dirty by reforming hydrocarbons (natural gas) and cleanly by an inefficient process (uses massive amounts of electricity) called electrolysis. Which of the two do you think most hydrogen comes from? if you guess the former you are right. Only 4% of all produced hydrogen in the US is made through electrolysis.

[anujan Posted Dec 24th 2009 9:23AM]

haha, one week power storage for probably a consumption of a 40W bulb. this product could be a hit with will-it-blend

[Broo Posted Dec 24th 2009 2:14PM]

I have seen what an 8 cell lithium ion battery can do when damaged; that setup looks like it will be a 200 cell battery?

Sounds a little dangerous as if one of cell fails and goes thermal it would start a chain reaction which could quickly create your own personal lithium-ion Chernobyl -in your house...

[clafarge Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:26PM]

Since Lithium Ion get hot (and sometimes explode), this would be a great opportunity to also heat water or air in your home and at the same time keep the battery cooler. Nothing like reducing your consumption at the same time as reducing your cost :)