LG's Home Battery Company Just Revealed Its New Tesla Powerwall Rivals
Tesla Powerwall is getting more competition, with LG Energy Solution unveiling a new home battery system designed to keep the lights on even if the power goes out. The new LG RESU Prime and LG RESU Flex ranges package up lithium-ion batteries for off-grid, solar, and backup use, with the company claiming it has the largest residential energy storage system so far.
That's courtesy of LG RESU16H Prime, which packs a whopping 16 kWh of usable energy. It can also be scaled up to 32 kWh, with two units, for really demanding applications. Available this month, it can deliver a sustained 7 kW or 11 kW peak, or 14 kW if you have two units installed. In contrast, a Tesla Powerwall uses a 13.5 kWh battery, and can deliver 5 kW of sustained power.
If that's slightly more than your home actually demands, the RESU10H Prime is a smaller version. It has 9.6 kWh of li-ion battery power inside, but can also be scaled up to 19.2 kWh with two units. It's rated for 6 kW sustained or 7 kW peak, or up to 10 kW with two units installed.
Both have features like remote battery monitoring, and are compatible with a variety of inverters for easier installation. That includes single-phase or three-phase, and commercial or residential. If you have a solar system, the RESU Prime batteries can be used to store excess power for when you need it later on; alternatively, they can be charged from the grid, and kept as a backup should that go down at some point.
The LG RESU16H Prime is expected to go on sale this month, while the smaller RESU10H Prime will follow on in March 2021. After that, though, LG Energy Solution is also promising a new, flexible battery system, dubbed LG RESU FLEX, which should launch in the second half of 2021.
It consists of battery modules, with support for 2-4 being fitted at any one time depending on power requirements. That way, you can have between 8.6 and 17.2 kWh of capacity installed. Sustained power delivery is between 4.3 kW and 8.6 kW, or 5-11 kW peak, and you still get remote battery monitoring and support for hybrid and even small commercial solar inverters.
LG Energy Solution was spun out from LG Chem, the electronics behemoth's battery division, and will focus on the global battery business. It's certainly a growing industry: while Tesla's Powerwall may be among the best-known of the whole home backup battery products, it's certainly not alone. Only last month, Shell subsidiary Sonnen launched its sonnenCore home battery system, also intended to take on Tesla's system.