Korean battery firm LG Chem has struck a blow against Tesla as the fight for customers in the increasingly crowded US residential energy storage system market grows.
Leading US residential solar company Sunrun has opted for LG’s award winning lithium-ion RESU system for its new energy storage system.
Sunrun will offer LG Chem’s batteries through its BrightBox™ solar generation plus energy storage systems.
It announced its ‘non-exclusive deal’ with LG on October 26, which it says is ‘additive to our current supplier base’.
That supplier base includes US firm Tesla, which just days later announced it was releasing its Powerwall 2 plus PV system in collaboration with SolarCity.
Solarcity is of course the solar power system provider tha boasts Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk as its chairman.
Trina Smith, director, public relations at Sunrun, said: ” We continuously evaluate the best storage products to offer our customers.
“The partnership with LG Chem allows us to expand our supplier base and helps us drive lower costs for our customers and offers greater scale which will help us enter new markets.”
She added: “We still plan on working with Tesla.”
Further details of the deal have not been disclosed at this time.
The scalable 3.3-10kWh RESU system, LG Chem’s first foray into the residential ESS market, won an ees Intersolar award in the summer. The judges noted its capacity, energy density and durability during the presentation.
Sunrun will also make LG Chem’s battery solution available to the entire solar energy industry through AEE Solar, its nationwide distributor of solar products subsidiary.
In May 2015 AEE added the first Powerwall to its products list.