Utah-based Vivint Solar to package panels with Mercedes-Benz batteries

By Tom Harvey The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: May 18, 2017 4:49 pm
Energy • Utah company agrees to offer Benz batteries in its residential panels.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Vivint Solar announced Thursday that it is collaborating with Mercedes-Benz Energy to jointly offer that company's batteries along with Vivint's solar panels.

Vivint, which has installed solar energy systems on 100,000 homes in the United States since its inception in 2011, said the deal is the first time Mercedes-Benz Energy will offer its batteries for residential use with a U.S. solar provider.

The deal also puts Vivint Solar into head-to-head competition with Tesla, the electric-car company that owns SolarCity. Tesla also offers a combination of solar panels and batteries that can power homes. 

Mercedes-Benz Energy is a fully owned subsidiary of another carmaker, the German company Daimler AG.

"The choice to work with Mercedes-Benz Energy, a world-class innovator in energy storage, was an easy one," David Bywater, CEO of Vivint Solar of Lehi, said in a news release.

Vivint Solar is a sister company of Vivint Smart Home and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares were up about 3 percent in afternoon trading.

Boris von Bormann, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Energy Americas LLC, said the partnership with Vivint Solar permits the company to offer the same solar storage system in the U.S. as it now does in Europe.

The deal, he said, "allows customers to take the next step toward a sustainable energy future."

Vivint Solar had operations in 14 states at the end of last year.

California is the first U.S. market where Vivint Solar will be selling the combination of solar panels and batteries, beginning this quarter. 

It will sell customers the systems outright or finance the purchase.  A fully installed 2.5 kilowatt-hour battery system, when paired with a solar energy system, will cost about $5,000. Customers can get up to a 20 kilowatt-hour home-energy storage system for about $13,000. A kilowatt-hour is the amount of electrical energy consumed when 1,000 watts are used for one hour.

Some installations may cost more or less, depending on customer needs and special requests, Vivint Solar said. 

tharvey@sltrib.com

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