Most of us know Anker for its smartphone accessories, but the brand is in the business of more than just cables and mobile power banks. On Tuesday at its annual Re[Charge] conference in New York City, Anker unveiled Solix, which harvests and stores solar energy for households during outages.
Solix comprises several home energy products, each aiming to help households achieve “energy independence.” The new Solarbank E1600 works with Anker’s Solix Balcony Solution (a plug-and-play solar panel system released in Europe this year) and other photovoltaic balcony modules to store up to 1.6 kWh of energy, rain or shine. A similar F1200 Portable Power Station Bundle works with the Solix Balcony Solution to provide on-the-go power, with peak/off-peak hour usage customization options and energy consumption monitoring.
Most notable, however, is Anker’s new All-in-One Energy Storage Solution, a mounted battery system that can hold up to 180 kWh of energy per unit—enough to power the average household for up to five days.
The Solix All-in-One system is modular, so homeowners can choose how much energy they want to store. While the smallest wall battery will hold just 5kWh—enough to run a dishwasher twice—a model the size of a Rivian Max Pack will hold 180 kWh. The batteries are designed to be mounted on an exterior wall to offer a seamless transition to off-grid power. While Anker didn’t specify the durability of the All-in-One system, its aforementioned Solarbank E1600 will offer IP65 water and dust resistance, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect the All-in-One to hover around there.
Anker’s All-in-One system will compete directly with Tesla’s Powerwall, an integrated backup battery designed to keep households running during power outages. Powerwall works optionally with Tesla’s solar panels, making it a common upsell for those who splurge on the latter. Though the system was initially introduced in 2015, the latest Powerwall+ model offers a maximum capacity of just 13.5 kWh for $11,500 to $15,000, depending on location and installation. Anker hasn’t said how much each All-in-One module will cost yet, making it difficult to compare the two before Anker names its price later this year.
