Yotta Energy’s New 1kWh Rooftop Battery Pulls Double Duty As Ballast – CleanTechnica

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Rooftop solar storage and micro inverter company Yotta Energy is back at RE+ this year with a new version of its rooftop battery that much more elegantly provides storage and allows installers to use it as ballast for the system at the same time.

When we talked to Yotta Energy at Intersolar in January, the company was showcasing its 1 kilowatt-hour LFP energy storage unit that integrates with a surface mount racking solution, serving both as the energy storage for the solar system as well as using the weight of the battery as ballast for the racking system. The massive unit wasn’t elegant for the 1kWh it provided, but it worked with a few slight modifications to the racking system.

The original unit weighed in at 55 pounds and used both the improved thermal characteristics of LFP cells as well as a proprietary phase change material that turns from a solid to a liquid to help dissipate heat when combined with a set of exterior cooling fins.

This year, Yotta Energy is showing off a completely new and improved design. It’s roughly a third of the volume of the original battery which is a significant improvement, and Yotta was also able to shrink the size of the cooling fins significantly thanks to all of the learnings from the original product.

The new battery is only 32 pounds, which makes it far easier for installers to pull a few of them up onto the roof. The integrated handle is ergonomically located on the small side, making it easy to grab and move around. That translates to easier and faster installation times and a safer run up the ladder with a battery in hand.

To further optimize the configuration and installation, Yotta Energy modified its microinverter to support two battery units per solar panel, which is ideal for ballast block replacements. It’s almost like they built everything they learned from their first few years of operations into this new battery…

The exterior of the new battery module is also the same size of a typical cement ballast block used to hold rooftop solar systems in place. That makes it easy to swap it out 1 for 1, eliminating the need for cement ballast blocks that add no actual value to the rooftop system.

Yotta Energy worked with leading solar racking supplier Unirac to design a new custom mount solution that allows two of Yotta Energy’s new battery modules to nest in the feet of the mounts themselves. This further consolidates the footprint of the system and makes for much more elegant and streamlined install.

Yotta Energy showing off this new battery at RE+ in Anaheim is just the soft launch, with the official launch planned for Intersolar in January 2025. Building on the official launch, the new battery will launch in Q1 or Q2 of 2025. For more information about the new Yotta Energy battery head over to the website.