- Do small residential batteries make sense?

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Home batteries like the Tesla Powerwall are nice, but what about people who can’t afford them, or renters who aren’t allowed to install them, or people who just don’t want the hassle of dealing with a permit and an electrician? A company called Pila is selling small (1.6 kWh) batteries that simply plug into a normal electrical socket. They can serve as backup for a refrigerator or other appliance in the event of a blackout, but they can also “mesh” with one another to form a network, pair with rooftop solar, or participate in VPP programs. CEO Cole Ashman explains the value proposition.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:26 Lessons from Powerwall and Span

05:33 What Pila is and how it works

07:14 How long a fridge runs on one battery

09:28 Fire risk, LFP chemistry, and New York City

16:02 Why the price went up, and cost per kilowatt hour

19:55 Who is actually buying Pila

23:00 Financing models and free batteries

27:04 Do the bill savings add up?

32:05 Why utilities want small batteries in VPPs

36:58 Pilots with Holy Cross Energy and Brooklyn SolarWorks

41:09 Solar pairing and the Pila mesh network

47:14 Camping batteries and built-in storage

54:19 Utilities and visibility at the grid edge

55:58 Bidirectional outlets and the next five years

1:00:10 Clean energy as invisible infrastructure