New Panasonic Lithium-Ion Battery to Power Up a House [New Li-Ion Battery Coming from Panasonic in 2011]

41 Comments for “New Panasonic Lithium-Ion Battery to Power Up a House [New Li-Ion Battery Coming from Panasonic in 2011]”

1. photonfuture » Blog Archive » A Vision of the Future Home Power Source | December 24th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
   

   [...] “Panasonic is going to create one of the hottest batteries available to date. The new lithium-ion storage cell should power up a whole house in 2011 when it could be available to the general public. I don’t know about you but I’d want to plug that battery right into my laptop and see how much life it will be able to offer me. Furnio Otsubo, president of Panasonic said that the new battery should offer sufficient electricity for about one week of use. That’s certainly something I could get used to although I bet the new battery concept is not going to be that affordable. [...]

2. Alex | December 24th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
   

   I’m not sure how eco friendly this really is as stocking energy implies a waste in the conversion process.

   Also, this must be aimed for the south, as i can’t imagine a week of battery in the winter with a bunch of 1.5kW heater running without the battery take a whole room.

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3. Mark | December 24th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
   

   Well, I guess I can’t spesk for everyone, but this northerner uses a natural gas, forced air furnace for heating in the cold winter months.

   -Mark

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4. Mike | December 24th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
   

   I’m not sure how eco friendly this really us, as stocking energy implies a waste in the conversion process.

   Also, this must be aimed for the north, as I can’t imagine a week of battery in the summer with a bunch of 1.5kW ACs running without the battery take a whole room.

   Get the point?

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5. ‘Home Batteries’ Power Houses For a Week | JetLib News | December 24th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
   

   [...] writes “Panasonic has announced plans to create ‘home batteries.’ They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such [...]

6. Ron | December 24th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
   

   How eco-friendly is it destroy your house (and quite possibly your neighbor’s!), creating all that CO2 from burning wood and toxic gasses from burning plastic, when those Li-ion batteries explode?

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7. relliker | December 24th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
   

   Yeah If I count how many times I have seen such announcements I’d be counting to infinity. None of these technologies announced in the last 5-10 years have come to fruition. I have seen claims of prototypes of batteries that charge in 5 seconds for 5 hours use, others promising user-liquid re-fillable batteries that should last for days, paper-thin batteries, PAPER batteries, nuclear batteries etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. I’m still waiting for ANY of them to be delivered When you announce something that will be available in 2011 it means it would be available by 2011 IF all your sci-fi dreams come true. They never do. No battery tech revolution has happened despite several company’s claim to have found holy grails of fast-charging/long duration/lifetime/safe/light/cheap everything-battery. So please PAN, my dear, DO NOT announce anything before you have something in your hands that you can manufacture and deliver because currently, YOU DON’T!

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8. John | December 24th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
   

   what about this is eco-friendly? Its actually eco-unfriendly, as it not merely uses the power you already have but produces a highly-toxic waste product after its life is up.

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9. knower | December 24th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
   

   this is something I’ve been waiting for a long time. This is the core technology for peak load shaving in residential property. For example, it’s the middle of summer, you work at home or have a health condition which requires climate controlled environment. A diabetic is a good example. I need the house a little cooler in the summer and little warmer in the winter than most people. Not much 3-4° but that requires a significant amount of energy.

   A bank of batteries could be used to power the peak load demand for air conditioning or heating instead of taking off of the grid at the worst possible time. Then, at night, it could be charged when the power demands are lower.

   The really sad thing is that we could have had this technology running 10 or 15 years ago using gel cell batteries if it hadn’t been for the power companies fighting against net metering. Yes, the vast majority of the electrical system inefficiencies today exist because of the unwillingness of power companies to move forward with technological change.

   In any case, I think that lead acid batteries are still the best option for this application because we don’t care about weight, only reliability, and capacity. Another nice feature of gel cell batteries that they do not exploding catch fire. They’re very stable, very well known technology that can be recycled easily and cheaply.

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10. issy53 | December 24th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
    

    The battery exploding is not an issue, or rather its an issue that has been resolved. The real issue is our limited reserves of lithium, which despite being one of the most common elements on earth, is hardly available in mine-able concentrations to meet current demand.

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11. Mike | December 24th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
    

    I’m of the same mind a Relliker on this one. The pic of the battery pack is the same old tech packaged in a shinny new box. At the present cost of these batteries I hold little hope that a system sized to power a whole house would cost less than the house in which it is to be installed. I would also bet that the boast of powering the whole house for a week is based on every device in it being based on the latest power efficient device there is to be had. In other words, F#@King expensive! Lead acid batteries are reliable, cheap, long lived, easy to recycle and provide a decade or more of service. So what if lithium ion batteries have three times the energy density.

    Mike

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12. Kent Torell | December 24th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
    

    Looking at the picture, and assuming they are using their common CGR18650 cell (pretty ubiquitous), there will be around 484 cells in the pack (expensive!) with a storage capacity of about 4 Kw-hrs. That assumes 8 rows of 18 (we can see 9 through the window).

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13. Alex | December 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
    

    http://xkcd.com/678/

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14. dorf | December 24th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
    

    eco friendly?
    who cares.
    there is no such thing as anthropogenic global warming.
    CO2 is not a greenhouse gas.
    CO2 levels rise AFTER temperature increase.
    the sun controls earth’s climate not man.

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15. anadventurer | December 24th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
    

    Why is it when even a newl piece of the green power puzzle is born like 10 a-hats have to complain how bad the new item is.

    What is that? Are they just afraid of change or that they can’t install it themselves because they don’t understand the technology?

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16. Revolution In This Nation (RITN) » Blog Archive » Slashdot Posts – December 24, 2009 | December 24th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
    

    [...] has announced plans to create ‘home batteries.’ They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such [...]

17. james pruett | December 24th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
    

    Most people that poo-poo this idea, really want it to succeed. Its a phenomena I will call poo-poo-success. All ideas of worthy especially if Japanese marketing is involved!

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18. Erick | December 24th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
    

    I wish Panasonic their best in producing this. Being a solar panel user myself it would be nice to store some energy never used from the cells.

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19. Pete N | December 24th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
    

    There is STILL one little thing you all are guilty of failing to take into account and it is simple but not compatible and that is we live in an AC powered world Solar power of ANY type is DC the conversion of DC to AC using inverters is to put it politley a waste of space , Untill such time as we either go DC completely or at the very least if we remain AC then we need to move up to something around the 38 – 42 Khz range then things work a little better but whilst we are at 50/60 Hz forget solar and batteries.

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20. Art | December 24th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
    

    Hasn’t anyone on this forum ever studied the DIY off-grid housing movement in the US? There are folks all over the US who get a large percentage of their energy from their own wind and solar generators. They presently use physically large banks of lead acid batteries, so the whole point of the announcement is that the new technology may provide a higher energy density for use in these “battery sheds.” As noted, there is always a fire hazard associated with stored energy, but that is also true of hydrocarbon fuels. BTW, they also use heat collectors and heat reservoirs to provide hot water, heat pup chiller, and space heating, year round, with backup from gas, etc.

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21. Joe | December 24th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
    

    Having worked with portable electronics, this seems like something fairly ambitious. The nice thing is independence from the grid (especially if you live far from the grid and running a line is expensive), but the negative problem is that batteries tend to have a cycle life (and for lithium you are looking at about 500 recharges before replacing them).

    The battery shown looks somewhat small when you consider also running a washing machine, stove and hot water tank.

    Overall, it appears an interesting idea.

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22. Tom Andersen | December 24th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
    

    This is, don’t forget a Japanese house for a week – not everyone uses electricity like an American. Likely a day or so worth for a US house.

    Still – electricity will be cheaper by night very soon in many places, so even something that costs $1000 and stores 20 kWh of electricity would be useful. But can that be done?
    Right now, Lithium ion cells are $3 and store 9 watt hours, so $3000 would store 9 kwh. So a factor of 5 – 10 away from useful, right now.

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23. John | December 25th, 2009 at 12:56 am
    

    This would be cool, just for the fact that it could essentially act as a battery backup for your entire house when the power goes out during a storm.

    As far as eco-friendly is concerned, you have to know more about the production and disposal process of the device before you can go calling it environmentally friendly. Lithium is not exactly an inert and harmless material, and as far as I know, Li-ion batteries can’t be revived after they lose their ability to hold a charge. Thousands and thousands of giant lithium-ion batteries ending up in a dump would definitely not be eco-friendly.

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24. hsr0601 | December 25th, 2009 at 3:29 am
    

    Only if we think of energy fix differently, the coming of EV epoch might never be off in the future.
    Under current capacity of electricity generation in America, it is said to accommodate comfortably 2 millions of EVs during nighttime. Although the typical power sources are predictable, certain sources are inefficiently forced to produce juice even at off-peak hours.

    It reflects EVs are not simply able to take full advantage of the excess juice, but can make a considerable contribution to the forthcoming sustainable yet intermittent energy sources as a precious storage.

    As with Nissan and the others, leasing and recycling battery pack is capable of making EVs affordable. Similarly, grasping energy industry, we could expedite the roll-out of EVs without hesitation.

    Our energy future might hang on our different approach.

    Thanks A Lot !

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25. john | December 25th, 2009 at 4:48 am
    

    Look, nay say all day, its not a bad thing to try. I doubt you guys ever rode a bike, you wouldn’t with that attitude. Charlie Brown it some more, thats helpful.

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26. S michael | December 25th, 2009 at 5:28 am
    

    Vaporware… Vapor ware….Vapor ware.. SHOW ME THE BATTERY…ITS BS…

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27. survivalist | December 25th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
    

    Hopefully Panasonic will pull through and release such a product. After natural disasters – such as hurricanes – and the power is out for a long time, a battery pack like this would be a nice option.

    Instead of keeping 55 gallons of gasoline stored for your generator, have this battery pack and a couple of solar cells handy.

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28. Chad LaFarge | December 25th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
    

    How nice it would be to be able to use the heat generated by those exploding batteries to heat your water or home?

    Err… cool those batteries using your home’s water or circulating cooler air through the battery to cool it down?

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29. carl | December 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
    

    A battery company owner by Catipiller, I think it is firefly, is developing led carbon batteries. Bergstrom, a major maker of truck tractor heating and AC systems. is using them to condition the cab without idling the truck engine. the claim 10000 cycles between 50% and 80%. There are 3 other companies working on lead carbon technology. If you need standby emergency power for your house, buy a Prius.

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30. schizuki | December 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
    

    Attention, environmentalists:

    TANSTAAFL.

    (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.)

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31. egoist | December 26th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
    

    Probably a Japan-house, where they routinely share bath-water and a light-bulb or 2.

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32. Randy Rager | December 26th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
    

    Product on the shelf or it didn’t happen.

    When are you people going to figure out that you’re being played like fiddles? No product in hand, no story, period.

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33. doc | December 26th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
    

    This sounds highly unlikely.

    A small American house uses about 300 KW-hr of electricity in a week.

    A 300 KW-hr battery would be
    1. HUGE
    2. HUGELY EXPENSIVE
    3. DANGEROUS

    I suspect this battery is actually to mate with small 200 watt solar panels and their inverters which generate a laughably small amount of power for the cost.

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34. m00tpoint | December 26th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
    

    Yes, it’s vaporware at this point, but most of you miss why this would be revolutionary if it is feasible.

    Solar can’t replace baseline power generation, because (duh!) it doesn’t work at night. You need to build about 3 kwh for every 1 kwh of baseline power for wind, because (duh) it’s not always very windy. But if you have large-scale storage, using variable sources like solar and wind for baseline becomes feasible. That’s big stuff.

    m00t

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35. artist | December 26th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
    

    Will it cause algore to stop using private jets?

    No?

    Well, maybe it will help some hollywood “eco warriors” run their 15,000 sq ft mansions?

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36. chemman | December 26th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
    

    Sorry Doc but you got some bad data. I moved off grid last year. 1000 sf cabin. We use about 450 KW Hr of electricity per month. (Forced air heating, Dishwasher, Washer, Dryer, Refrigerator and Freezer, 2 computers, copy machine and laser printer). I have a 3.5 KW solar systems with a 1 KW wind system. We have done fine.
    While these batteries are intriguing provided they pan out their cost will be a major factor.
    To use them you will need a good inverter that can also act as a charge controller if you are on the grid. If you plan on using solar you will need a separate charge controller to help maintain there charge. The number of charge cycles will be important also. To be useful they will need to have more longivity than the current lead-acid deep cycle batteries in use.

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37. johnkzin | December 26th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
    

    Hopefully it’ll have an easy way to give it multiple inputs:

    1) grid
    2) solar and/or wind
    3) generator
    4) from your car (hybrid smart-grid just for your home battery)

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38. Doc | December 27th, 2009 at 12:30 am
    

    consumption depends on where you are, and particularly if you have electric hot water and stove/oven.

    There are many areas of the US where 300 or more KW-hr/week are the norm.

    Average US residential monthly power consumptions are located at
    http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/esr/table5.html

    Batteries to provide this kind of power for a week are simply not reasonable in cost, and particularly in life-cycle costs as deep discharge for maximum home power tends to destroy lithium (and most other solid electrode) cells quickly.

    So your either have to double up on the batteries needed for lighter discharge and longer life or run a smaller number deeper with a shorter life-span. Either way, you lose.

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39. Jose Sanchez | December 27th, 2009 at 5:11 am
    

    The lithium-ion battery pack for the Chevrolet Volt is supposed to cost about $20,000, thus the expected price tag of $40,000 for the 40-mile range Volt. Certainly a battery that must power a house 24 hours per day for several days would be much more expensive than the $20,000 Volt battery. If the house average power usage is 1 kilowatt, the Panasonic batteries would have to store at least 120 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy for five days usage.

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40. Larry | December 27th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
    

    1) Why use LION? You don’t need the highest possible power density for non-mobile applications like this.

    2) We’re approaching a lithium shortage at high speed.

    3) A week seems excessive if you just want to backstop your solar/wind system.

    4) Why does every household have to generate its own power? I’d love to relocate my PV array to someplace where the sun shines more often and where somebody else could look after it and its battery backup for a management fee.

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41. Pailin | December 30th, 2009 at 12:22 am
    

    in the copy of this news article from tomshardware they mention in it:

    “Shimbun also added that Panasonic and Sanyo have already test-manufactured a version of the storage battery for home use.”

    and there jaybus posted in response to the article:

    “See Nationmaster.com. In per capita electrical power consumption, the US is 9th and Japan 17th. You will notice that nations such as Iceland, Norway, and Canada top the list. No mystery, it’s cold there.”

    To me in that pic of the battery it looks no longer than my forarm.

    I truely hope it is this revolutionary!!!

    Appart from serious applications… think how much fun you could have with one of these in something like a T-Rex 600 RC Helicopter with mounted video gear flying about! Have dreamed about something like this with extended flight time for a Long time!!!

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