Siemens makes its play in residential storage business

From pv magazine Germany.

Siemens has announced it will begin offering residential storage systems. The Junelight Smart Battery will be offered to PV system owners aiming to optimize their self-consumption, said the German conglomerate.

The device can optimally adjust loading and unloading processes, Siemens said, depending on the weather-related yield forecast for a PV system as well as the consumption profile of a household. All the energy flow, from production to storage and consumption, as well as the amount of electricity fed into the grid, can be monitored in real time using an app, the company said.

According to Siemens, storage capacity can be adapted on a modular basis to individual requirements, with up to six battery units with a net capacity of 3.3 kWh each which can be used and flexibly adapted to consumption behavior, such as for connecting heat pumps or charging electric cars.

The Junelight Smart Battery features connections for future function extensions, so the system can be expanded by software updates.

Germany’s Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologie (VDE) has certified the product and system according to all relevant standards and the battery is already available in Germany, and will be sold in Austria from April.

The Junelight’s hardware and app design has secured it this year’s IF Design Award. The storage casing is characterized by a particularly flat design, with either white or black surfaces, and an integrated digital display. The app convinced jurors with its intuitive user guidance and clear visualization of the relevant energy values, Siemens said.