Vol 1, issue 2 November 2017

LITHIUM batteries are set to shake the solar power storage problem head-on all over the world

Lithium is 3 times more power dense than Lead Acid and has a 10 year warranty, 20 year life expectancy

It’s pretty simple these days to generate a load of power from a solar panel array on your roof. It just happens—at least 300 days of the year—every year. Every living growing thing generates energy from the sun—every day.

But storing the power we do not use in the daytime for later use in the night time is a different story altogether. We need a DAM to store excess water — that’s a simple thing to do. Electricity on the other hand needs the same, but its called a BATTERY. And NOW the confusion starts. “ Why is my battery not holding its charge as well as it should, it’s only a year old?” we are often asked.

Well, let's explain in simple non-technical language: A normal LEAD ACID battery decays EVERY time its charged, and each charge is called a CYCLE. ALL batteries have a cycle lifespan—from hundreds of cheaper ones to many thousands of cycles for the very expensive ones. Every time you recharge a Lead Acid battery, it loses a little capacity to store its charge due to its charging decay. (sulfation). Only a little is lost at a time, but over two years or so, it will be very evident that the battery is not as powerful as it used to be. This is the nature of the beast. These batteries are guaranteed for between 6 months and two years depending on quality. Lifespans range from 1 year up to a maximum of around 5-8 years. YOU SHOULD NEVER DRAIN THIS BATTERY TYPE MORE THAN 30% TO 50% OF ITS CAPACITY.

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries do not suffer from the decay of charging as they have onboard protection circuitry to protect it from over or under the charge and excessively high drain currents. THESE BATTERIES do not lose capacity after charging and can be abused within reason, without any adverse effects and they can be very safely discharged to almost empty—around 90% discharged. Every discharge cycle. Rated at >3000 charge cycles, their warranty is 10 years and lifespan in excess of 20 years. Twice the price of LEAD ACID, they are 3 times more energy dense, and last at least 3 times longer than the most advanced lead-acid battery.