NEC is ready to use some of the expertise it gained by developing lithium-ion batteries for Nissan’s electric vehicles in recent years for home use: according to a report in Japanese business daily The Nikkei that was published today, that new 6kwh household power storage system will only cost around $12,300 – which is about 50% cheaper than comparable systems on sale today.
The purchase price translates to roughly $2,000 per kilowatt-hour, with NEC saying they were able to push down the prices through using components already built on scale in their car battery business.
6kwh is said to be about a third of the average power use a four-person family has in the Tokyo area on a daily basis. The system is designed to be used outdoors and can reduce power consumption of such a family by half by storing electricity at night, according to NEC.
The company will start selling a total of 100 systems as early as this month to monitor usage before the main roll out next year.