Solar power:
Mountain View firm integrates cells, inverter, battery into one unit.
To many analysts, the future of home energy looks like this: solar panels on the roof and a battery in the basement.
The battery will soak up electricity from the panels during the day for use at night. So far, the battery and the panels are usually assumed to be two separate things, tied together by wiring and software.
Now a Mountain View startup wants to make them one.
SunCulture Solar on Thursday unveiled a prototype product — the SolPad — that integrates solar cells, an inverter and a solid-state battery into one self-contained unit that looks much like an oversized smartphone.
The company plans to make SolPads of different sizes, some large enough to sit on the roof and power a home, others small enough to be portable. The portable version could even run an apartment’s lights and appliances at night, using software that can push precise amounts of electricity into a standard wall socket.
Both are designed to simplify the process of going solar, although the SolPad Home would still require professional installation.
“My aim is to do with renewable power what smartphones did with computers,” said Christopher Estes, SunCulture’s CEO and chief product architect. “I don’t like manuals. It just has to work.
It needs to be simple.”
The company plans to start selling the portable version first, with release targeted for the second half of 2017.
SunCulture has not yet released a price for either the portable or home-based products. But the company’s preliminary estimate for SolPad Home pegs the installed cost at $19,443 for a system capable of generating 5.3 kilowatts of electricity. Based on data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a typical residential solar system of that size currently costs about $21,700 — and doesn’t include a battery.
Longtime solar entrepreneur Barry Cinnamon has seen the SolPad and considers it an elegant way to combine two products — solar and energy storage — that will inevitably come together. He likens the combination to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
“This is peanut butter and chocolate, for solar,” said Cinnamon, CEO of solar installation company Cinnamon Solar. “The way this industry has been working, these parts have all been coming from different companies, so integrating the parts is pretty cool.”
The portable SolPad weighs 25 pounds and stands 2 feet, 4 inches tall. And much like the phones it resembles, it is packed with hidden features, including a voice.
Set it down too hard on the floor, and it complains “Ow! Be careful, will you?” Stand in the way of its 20 silicon solar cells, and the female voice — recorded by one of the company’s executives — says, “Excuse me, do you mind? You’re blocking my sunlight.”
A row of LEDs on the front of the device can serve as a light during power outages or be programmed to mimic flashing, multicolored disco strobes. Another setting turns the LEDs red and plays the theme to the talking-car television classic “Knight Rider.”
Not all the features are as whimsical.
Two universal power outlets on the back allow the user to plug appliances directly into the device. So do three USB ports. Tap the side of the device, and it will tell you how much energy it’s absorbing from the sun, how much juice is left in the battery, or how much electricity it’s delivering to your appliances. Two or more portable SolPads can easily be linked together to generate more power.
The device can be controlled via an app for smartphones and smartwatches. It can also be plugged into a wall socket and, directed by the app, feed precisely enough electricity into an apartment’s wiring to run lights, a computer, a television, or all of the above.
Apartment dwellers could let SolPad charge during the day and use its power at night, Estes said. It could also provide energy during blackouts or following a disaster, like a major earthquake.
Similarly, the rooftop version of SolPad is designed to keep working even if the state’s power grid goes down. The vast majority of home solar arrays can’t do that, Cinnamon said.