The Blue Ion Continuum battery, announced Thursday by Rogers’ Hawaii-based company Blue Planet Energy and expected out first quarter next year, comes in modular segments that can grow with the needs of the family. The most basic configuration comes with an inverter and 8 kilowatt-hours of storage, but the additional battery units can be added vertically or horizontally at any time. Think of it as a home storage version of the Tetris challenge: how do you slide the blocks into space so they all fit optimally?
“It’s a constructive game, and this is a constructive product,” Rogers said during an interview at the launch event in Palo Alto. “I like construction rather than destruction.”
The basic package, dubbed Power On, comes with an inverter and two connected battery blocks, totaling 8 kilowatt-hours of energy storage (as compared to Tesla’s 6.4 kilowatt-hour Powerwall).
If the family and its electricity demand grow, the customers can simply add another 4 kilowatt-hour battery unit, or more — the inverter can accept up to six of those units. This isn’t the first modular system. Enphase, for instance, offers a similar functionality, but only in Australia and New Zealand. The modularity, though, differentiates this battery concept from others on the market: instead of buying multiples of the same bulky unit to gain more capacity, customers can expand the Continuum and it will still look like an organic whole.
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