What Solar Battery is Made In Australia?
Solar batteries are becoming more and more popular as prices start to fall, and energy costs increase. Having a solar system with a battery will allow you to store energy during the day when your solar panels are working, and use it later. Without a battery, you will export and sell the excess energy back to the grid, instead of storing it and using it yourself. The amount you get paid for selling energy back to the grid, is always less than you get charged for buying energy. And if the solar battery is made in Australia, even better.
As the storage market grows in Australia, so does the list of available batteries for sale. As each year passes, there are new batteries available for purchase. This is both exciting and potentially perilous for consumers. On one hand, we have a wonderful opportunity to become more sustainable and reduce our living expenses. On the other hand, as with all emerging technology, there are going to be a lot of manufacturers delivering subpar products and a lot of people left high and dry with no warranty support as a lot of the companies will not stand the test of time. The same thing happened with solar panel manufacturers. If you compare the list of accredited solar panels manufacturers in Australia from 2013 to today, you will find that 83% of them are either no longer in business, or no longer serving the Australian market.
At the same time the battery market is emerging, Aussies are trying to buy Australian made products more than ever. We are a patriotic breed, and we like to look after our own where we can.
Solar batteries made in Australia:
As with most products we have in our homes these days, the vast majority of solar batteries are made overseas. Let’s start by taking a look at the most popular battery brands that are either Australian made or Australian owned:
sonnen – Australian Made
I will start by saying we haven’t mistakenly left the Capital letter from the brand name in our title here. sonnen is actually spelt with a small ‘s’. The sonnenBatterie hybrid is the Australian Made product in their offering. The solar battery that sonnen offers is made in Australia. They have a factory here in Adelaide where they manufacture these high-quality solar battery solutions, and they are very much a market leader in many senses.
Operating mode: single phase
AC/DC Coupled
Storage size: Modular design 2.5-15kWH (expandable in steps of 2.5kWh)
Peak battery efficiency: 98%
Warranty: 10 year / 10,000 cycle
System intelligence:
- With the use of predictive charging you maximize your PV output.
- Complete storage system
- Everything included, ready to connect
sonnen are a very well-made product that are aimed at the premium market. As you would expect from a German owned company who manufacture here in Australia, they are more expensive than some other options, but they offer great value for money.
Key points:
- Intelligent energy management software
- Modern design
- Range of capacities
- Australian made
- Safe battery chemistry and cobalt free
Redflow – Australian owned, manufactured overseas.
Redflow Limited, a publicly-listed Australian company, produces small 10kWh zinc-bromine flow batteries. Marketed as ZCell and ZBM2, Redflow batteries are designed for high cycle-rate, long time-base stationary energy storage applications in the residential, commercial & industrial and telecommunications sectors, and are scalable from a single battery installation through to grid-scale deployments.
They are an Australian owned company, but the battery is not made in Australia. Rather, it is done overseas, under license, by a Singapore based company called Flex, which carries out production in Mexico.
Giant Power – Australian Owned, manufactured overseas.
If you read through all our reviews on this website, you will find that they are all well balanced as we try to look at pros and cons of everything and give you honest and helpful advice. It is extremely rare that we leave scathing reviews for any products, which is why this message should be taken fairly seriously: We have had a very bad experience with Giant Power. There is lots of choice for solar and battery products out there and from our vast experience in the industry Giant Power are to be avoided.
Giant Power are an Australian owned company, and we would love to be able to promote them as a great business as we are also proudly Australian owned and operated. We have purchased a range of Giant Power products over the years and the quality has been extremely poor, the service has been even worse and the communication from the owner of the business down the line has been well below par.
Giant Power purchase batteries, chargers and inverters from various manufactures (mostly from China) and assemble them into kits here in Australia on the Sunshine Coast.
Evo Power – Australian Owned, partly made in Australia.
EVO Power is an Australian Energy Storage System (ESS) manufacturer that designs, integrates and commercialises the best of International and Australian ESS technologies. They offer Australian Made and fully supported turnkey battery systems to deliver market specific and Australian Standard compliant solutions.
Typically, Evo Power use LG Chem batteries which are made in South Korea. They make on and off grid battery solutions and tailor solutions for what clients need. They also use a lot of Selectronic inverter chargers which are an Australian owned and made product.
Everything is assembled here in Australia in Wantirna South, Vic
While we have not installed any Evo Power products ourselves yet, we like the company, and they seem to be a very high quality manufacturer.
Redback Technologies – Australian Owned. Manufactured overseas.
Redback Technologies is a Brisbane-based, clean-tech company that manufacture and distribute smart solar storage solutions throughout Australia and New Zealand. They were founded in 2015 and their websites claims Redback’s management has over a century of experience in renewable energy generation, engineering, manufacturing, software development and energy market regulation.
The batteries they use are not made in Australia. The modules are rack mounted and manufactured by China’s Pylon Tech. The battery chemistry used is lithium iron phosphate, widely considered as being very safe.
Redback offers single and three phase hybrid solutions for homes.
So, you do have a bit of choice when shopping for an Australian owned or made battery product. Our personal choice from the list above for a home battery solution is sonnen. They are bit more expensive than some of the others listed but they really are a great product, with a great warranty.
Other big brands that are made overseas
We cannot ignore the fact that some of the market leaders are made overseas. Here are the current biggest players:
Tesla Powerwall
Chances are, when you think of home solar batteries, you think of Tesla. They are the kings of marketing and have “done an Apple” by making their products extremely desirable. When the Tesla Powerwall first came to Australia every single major newspaper was reporting on how great they were, how much they cost and where you could buy them. Telsa and their genius leader, Elon Musk, have managed to create this buzz better than any other company in modern times, with Apple possible being the exception. They create a phenomenal amount of free PR and advertising and have somehow made their solar batteries sexy!
The Tesla Powerwall is made at the Gigafactory 1 just outside Reno, Nevada.
LG Chem
LG Chem are one of the biggest movers of solar batteries in Australia and while they have been going about their business with less noise than Tesla, they sell way more into our market!
LG Chem are manufactured in South Korea. They are a high-quality product and offer a great range for homeowners.
BYD
BYD are a Chinese company that manufacture solar batteries for homes and businesses. They offer single and three phase options and also have a stackable range meaning you can stack up to a few hundred kWhs of battery storage for larger projects.
They also manufacture electric vehicles and if you have ever been to China, you will have seen their cars and buses everywhere!
BYD offers a more affordable option compared to LG and Tesla, and we believe they are great value for money!
As mentioned at the start of this article, the solar battery storage market is growing fast and there are many other solar batteries available that we haven’t mentioned on this list.
The ones we have covered are currently the most popular Australian owned / made and most popular global brands.
If we have missed something from this list that you would like us to add, please get in touch here.
Here are some other links you may find helpful:
