Daily News | A suburban Philadelphia firm bets on new technology to store solar power 24/7
But the biggest news in the last month was the Inflation Reduction Act, whichfor buyers of energy storage devices that are boosted by 10% for domestically produced devices, such as the ESS Energy Warehouse. The IRA also provides credits to buyers of standalone battery storage units, while previous tax incentives applied only to energy storage directly associated with renewable generation.
“I knew flow batteries were a cool idea,” Santoleri said. “I did a search and found five companies that made them. Three of them were out of business.” He did find that ESS was still in business and the only manufacturer located in the U.S. He and Figgatt visited the company in Oregon and were sold. The battery system basically doubled the cost of Sycamore’s solar installation — the battery itself is in the neighborhood of $200,000, though Figgatt is vague about his total investment in the system. Figgatt figures the whole system will pay for itself in six to nine years, depending upon what happens with market energy prices. Meanwhile, Sycamore’s energy costs are fixed.
It will spare his business from long storm-related outages. And the voltage produced from his solar system is also finely tuned, which is critically important to Sycamore’s operations, where his 70 employees may be erasing the delicate hard drives of as many as 600 laptops simultaneously as they undergo refurbishment.