The 16th annual Solar Power International show was held this October in Salt Lake City. It’s been quite a growth story since the first show in 2004 in San Francisco, which was held in what is now just a lobby of a downtown skyscraper. Not only has the industry grown, but the range of equipment being exhibited has increased dramatically.
Recently, the biggest change has been towards new battery storage systems. Entire sections of the exhibit halls were dedicated towards energy storage in a periodic table hodge podge of elements: hydrogen, lithium, vanadium, cobalt, nickel, zinc, lead, etc. — everything except my favorite element, Solarium.
To me the real action was with the heart and brains of these battery storage systems: inverters. Pioneers of turnkey residential battery storage prodcuts — Outback, SMA, SolarEdge, Enphase — were joined by just about every company that manufacturers inverters or batteries, including Fronius, Delta, LG Electronics, Q-Cells, Panasonic, Sonnen, Generac and others.
But a nice brochure and fancy booth demos don’t always translate into products that customers can actually install today. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we review the most notable battery storage systems spotted on the floor of Solar Power International 2019.