A new year means new resolutions, but here at GTM, we don’t care about what you do at the gym.
The real goal-setters out there are the ones committing to enter the fast-changing world of energy storage. It takes confidence, determination and a willingness to keep showing up after the thrill of a new product launch has faded.
We don’t know who will be taking that leap in 2017, but the figures are in for 2016. Here is a pretty comprehensive list of the companies that launched their first U.S. energy storage product or created a new business to serve that market last year. If we missed anybody, let us know in the comments section.
Sunrun launches BrightBox solar-plus-storage product
The national residential solar specialist took its first step into the storage world with BrightBox. The solar-plus-storage combo comes with no-money-down lease or cash deal options, and first hit the streets in Hawaii last spring. Sunrun expanded it to California Dec. 14, and promised more states to come.
The key applications the company has touted are optimized solar self-consumption and emergency backup for when the grid goes down.
As net energy metering programs start to fade and the compensation for rooftop solar generation declines, we can expect to see solar companies turning to storage to add more value and attract new customers, said Ravi Manghani, energy storage director at GTM Research.
“In a lot of these markets, the early adopters have already gone solar,” he said. “The next layer of customers likely to install solar are probably looking for other benefits, which can be served by storage.” Benefits like intelligent load management, resilience during blackouts and the ability to produce solar energy without exporting, for instance.
Most solar installers won’t have the wherewithal to design a product in-house like a Sunrun or SolarCity can, but they can easily procure storage from manufacturers and install it themselves.
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