1. Overview of analysis
This report aims to provide local market conditions & trends relevant to storage applications for South Africa.
Data in this report was collated from three sources:
- Contractor online survey
- Interaction & communication
- Telephonic interviews
Contractor online survey:
This report includes collated data obtained from information supplied by 213 companies to create an overview of preferred storage brands and other criteria to understand the storage sector better and make informed decisions around storage related products.
Data submitted during the survey was not consistent as installers only provided what they knew and may have left some cells blank or refrained from answering certain questions. Data missing in one cell might have been reflected in other cells, i.e. the cell that contains “brand-of-battery” may have been left blank however the brand was then reflected in the cell containing one of the reference projects.
Data had to be re-worked and “cleaned” in order to produce this report. A certain margin of error should be accepted and the data contained in the report should be read as being a guide & summary of trends in storage that could be collated from the raw data. Information relayed is as per information submitted and has not been manipulated to motivate a certain outcome. Raw data is available on request. This report was generated for industry by PQRS.
The solar PV industry in SA is relatively new and consideration should be given with regards to the way in which contractors refer to the same item/concept under different names. kWh’s mentioned by one contractor might not have the same relevance or meaning for another contractor using the same abbreviation; as we see a diverse range of occupations finding an interest in; and doing PV installations.
Apart from the obvious information such as company name and trading name; the following questions were asked as part of the application process:
- In which region(s) do you operate?
- How long have you been active in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry?
- What volume of stationary storage did you sell in the last 12 months (in kWh)?
- From which wholesalers do you currently purchase?
- Please provide a few project references – provision was made for 3 reference projects.
- What brands of storage have you installed or are you planning to install?
Interaction & Communication: During PQRS training courses, contractors share a substantial volume of information through interaction, debate and discussions that form part of the face to face training event. Relevant information will then be researched and where deemed important/valuable has been included in this report.
Telephonic interviews: Telephonic interviews were done with three distributors of Li-ion storage brands.
2. Executive Summary
Of the raw data submitted from the 213 companies,
- 112 companies included battery brands
- 457 reference projects were mentioned which generated approx. 29MW in PV capacity
- 37% of reference projects were pure grid tied systems
- 63% of reference projects had some form of storage
- Based on data submitted there are
- 59 different Brands of Lead acid batteries in SA
- 12 different Li-ion batteries
- 5 different types/brands of Flow batteries
- 1 company that promotes the sale of BMS’s for lithium Ion batteries (Zettajoule)
A bit more detail of the findings
3. Different types of systems
Differentiation was made between five different types of systems:
- Off-Grid
- Any system as indicated to be off-grid or not connected to the grid
- Grid tied
- Any system that does not reflect any type of storage along with the product descriptions
- Hybrid (Grid tied with Storage)
- Any installations that indicated grid interactive, hybrid, grid with storage or grid with backup.
- Backup
- Any system that did not have solar PV connected to the installation
- Unknown
- Installations where the type of system was not specified.
The graph below shows two Pie charts. The chart to the left shows a summary of all referenced installations and draws a comparison between all types of installations, i.e. grid tied, off grid, hybrid, backup and unknown.
Data reflects the number of systems and not generation or storage capacity. We can therefore see that 289 of the 457 projects submitted included some form of storage. Installations that included storage can be broken down further to reveal:
- 192 of those installations being done with hybrid inverters,
- 60 being completely off-grid and
- 37 for backup purposes only.
Lead-acid battery brands available in SA Nov 2016
The table below shows the total number of Lead acid battery brands as was known to PQRS at the time of publishing this report towards the middle of November 2016.1 | Aspen | 16 | Enertec (Energizer) | 31 | MyPower | 46 | Sonic |
2 | AGMG+ | 17 | Excis (FNB) | 32 | Narada | 47 | Sonnenschein |
3 | BAE | 18 | Exide | 33 | North Star | 48 | SonX |
4 | Betta | 19 | Fiamm | 34 | Omnipower | 49 | Stride |
5 | BSB | 20 | First National | 35 | OMRON | 50 | Sukam |
6 | Ceil (+NXT) | 21 | General | 36 | Panzerplatte Gel | 51 | Sunlight |
7 | Celtec | 22 | Gridswitch | 37 | Powerman | 52 | Tasol |
8 | CS3 | 23 | Havano industries (IBT) | 38 | Probe batteries | 53 | Trojan |
9 | Delkor | 24 | Haze | 39 | Raylite (FNB) | 54 | UPS Direct |
10 | Deltec | 25 | Hoppecke | 40 | Ritar | 55 | US Batteries |
11 | Discovery | 26 | Kage | 41 | Royal | 56 | Victron |
12 | Dixon | 27 | Matrix | 42 | Shoto | 57 | Vision |
13 | Duratec | 28 | Mecer | 43 | Solar one | 58 | Willard |
14 | EnergyBox | 29 | MHB | 44 | Solatron | ||
15 | Enersys | 30 | Monbat | 45 | Sonex |
Li-ion battery brands available in SA as at November 2016
1 | Akasol Neocube Li-ion | 7 | Tesla Powerwall |
2 | Blue Nova Li-ion | 8 | BMZ |
3 | FreedomWon Li-ion | 9 | Zettajoule |
4 | LG chem Li-ion | 10 | MyPower24 |
5 | BattCo Li-ion not mentioned in raw data | 11 | Extra2000 (SolaX) |
6 | Icon Li-ion not mentioned in raw data |
Flow batteries November 2016
1 | Redflow (ZBM) | 4 | Van. Red. Flow(REDT) |
2 | Imergy (Flow) | 5 | Aquion |
3 | VizN Redox Flow |
Battery brands by popularity November 2016
The table below shows the number of times batteries were mentioned in the raw data and provides a reflection of brand awareness amongst installers. It could be argued that the number of times a brand has been mentioned may also serve as an indication of the popularity of a specific brand. Brands that appear in table above that do not appear in table below were not mentioned in the survey and names were added to the list through association / additional research.Ref nr. | Brand | Nr. of times mentioned | Ref nr. | Brand | Nr. of times mentioned |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | First National | 108 | 33 | Blue Nova Li-ion | 3 |
2 | Hoppecke | 70 | 34 | Delkor | 3 |
3 | Victron | 47 | 35 | EnergyBox | 3 |
4 | Trojan | 41 | 36 | Enersys | 3 |
5 | Discovery | 30 | 37 | Excis (FNB) | 3 |
6 | Narada | 27 | 38 | Exide | 3 |
7 | Omnipower | 26 | 39 | Fiamm (Sodium Nickel) | 3 |
8 | Willard | 26 | 40 | General | 3 |
9 | Deltec | 26 | 41 | Gridswitch | 3 |
10 | SonX | 21 | 42 | Haze | 3 |
11 | FreedomWon Li-ion | 20 | 43 | Imergy (Flow) | 3 |
12 | Sonic | 18 | 44 | Kage | 3 |
13 | Ceil (+NXT) | 15 | 45 | LG chem Li-ion | 3 |
14 | Vision | 12 | 46 | Matrix | 3 |
15 | Monbat | 10 | 47 | Mecer | 3 |
16 | Sunlight | 9 | 48 | MHB | 3 |
17 | Probe batteries | 9 | 49 | OMRON | 3 |
18 | Energizer (Enertec) | 8 | 50 | Powerman | 3 |
19 | Enertec (Energizer) | 8 | 51 | Raylite (FNB) | 3 |
20 | Betta | 6 | 52 | Solar one | 3 |
21 | Fiamm | 6 | 53 | Solatron | 3 |
22 | Mypower | 6 | 54 | Sonnenschein | 3 |
23 | Redflow (ZBM) | 6 | 55 | Stride | 3 |
24 | Ritar | 6 | 56 | Sukam | 3 |
25 | Royal | 6 | 57 | Tasol | 3 |
26 | Sonex | 6 | 58 | Tesla Powerwall | 3 |
27 | BSB | 5 | 59 | UPS Direct | 3 |
28 | Celtec | 5 | 60 | US Batteries | 3 |
29 | Dixon | 5 | 61 | VizN Redox Flow | 0 |
30 | CSB | 3 | 62 | Van. Red. Flow(REDT) | 0 |
31 | Akasol Neocube Li-ion | 3 | 63 | (IBT)Havano industries | 0 |
32 | BAE | 3 | 64 | BMZ | 0 |