Revolutionizing Rooftop Storage: Jordan Harris on Yotta Energy's Innovative Battery Solutions | EP283

Today on the Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague speaks with Jordan Harris, CEO of Yotta Energy, about their unique approach to commercial rooftop solar battery storage. Harris introduces Yotta Energy's latest innovation – the Yotta Block – a modular building block-type battery product that installs directly in line with solar panels, similar to microinverters. The battery becomes the ballast block. This distributed energy storage solution reduces soft costs associated with traditional battery installations, making it ideal for the small to mid-sized commercial and industrial (C&I) market.

Harris details Yotta's innovative three-phase thermal management system that maintains batteries in optimal operating conditions while serving as a safety mechanism, minimizing thermal runaway concerns. The company utilizes safer LFP battery chemistry and a design architecture that provides natural standoff between units, addressing key safety considerations for rooftop deployment. We also cover how Yotta's solution potentially streamlines system design and permitting to installation and ongoing maintenance.

Before joining Yotta Energy, Harris deployed over $1 billion in the solar and battery storage value chains, giving him deep insight into the challenges facing the C&I market. His expertise positioned him perfectly to recognize Yotta's potential to unlock this critical sector of the renewable energy transition. 

Listen to this episode to discover how Yotta Energy's module-level approach to energy storage could conveniently augment commercial solar installations and improve project economics through reduced soft costs and streamlined deployment.

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Website: Yotta Energy

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Episode Transcript

Jordan Harris (00:00):
That is really the secret sauce, and that's

(00:02):
what's critical to making thiswork. We've got a passive, three
phase thermal management system,keeps the battery in its ideal
operating range over the courseof the day, preserves the health
of the battery, and then atnight, it cools down and repeats
the cycle the next day. Thisalso acts as a fire barrier.
We're using LFP technologies, sothat is safe, or LFP chemistry,

(00:25):
so that is one of the saferchemistries. But the thermal
management system acts as a firebarrier, and then we've got
natural standoff between thesethese systems, they'll typically
be three to four feet away on aroof, so more or less thermal
runaway is completely eliminatedby the by the architecture and
by the design of the system.

intro (00:46):
Are you speeding the energy transition here at the
Clean Power Hour, our host, TimMontague, bring you the best in
solar, batteries and cleantechnologies every week. Want to
go deeper into decarbonization.
We do too. We're here to helpyou understand and command the
commercial, residential andutility, solar, wind and storage
industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the

(01:08):
energy transition.

Tim Montague (01:12):
We're here at inner solar San Diego, and I am
with Jordan Harris, the CEO ofYata energy. Welcome to the
Clean Power Hour. Jordan,Thanks, Tim, great to be here.
I've been following Yana for acouple of years, and you have a
new product out which we'regoing to talk about. You have
made a mark in the industrybecause you have a rooftop

(01:32):
storage device that replacesballast blocks on rooftop solar.
What is the new product? Jordan,the

Jordan Harris (01:39):
new product is it's the auto block. You can see
it behind you on the wall. It'sa modular building block type
energy storage product thatdeploys in line with the solar
panel, much like a microinverter does. So we've expanded
upon module level powerelectronics with module level
energy storage, and itstreamlines everything from

(02:02):
design permitting, installationand O and M and so customers are
have loved the gen one product,and gen two is going through UL
certification and will begetting produced this This June.
So

Tim Montague (02:19):
I noted that you also make a do. You call it a
micro inverter. You make aninverter as well that pairs with
your storage device. What's thestatus of the inverter?

Jordan Harris (02:31):
Correct? It's a four port micro inverter that's
designed, designed for yada. Wewe really deliver a solution.
And so it's you can deploy withor without batteries. And we've
also got a monitoring platformthat you know goes along with
that, provides alerts, alarms,troubleshooting, helps with our

(02:53):
installation and commissioning,and eventually we'll add more
feature sets to it andultimately deliver more value to
to our customers,

Tim Montague (03:02):
dollars and HJ when it comes to putting
batteries on the rooftop.

Jordan Harris (03:08):
So thank you.
Yes, that is really the secretsauce, and that's what's
critical to making this work.
We've got a passive, three phasethermal management system. Keeps
the battery in its idealoperating range over the course
of the day, preserves the healthof the battery, and then at
night, it cools down and repeatsthe cycle the next day. This
also acts as a fire barrier.
We're using LFP technology, sothat is safer LFP chemistry, so

(03:33):
that is one of the saferchemistries. But the thermal
management system acts as a firebarrier, and then we've got
natural standoff between thesethese systems. They'll typically
be three to four feet away on aroof, so more or less thermal
runaway is completely eliminatedby the by the architecture and
by the design of the system. I

Tim Montague (03:56):
did talk to one installer recently who has
successfully permitted a Yanaproject in Southern California.
But has it happened that HJ haverefused to permit the
technology?

Jordan Harris (04:11):
Listen, every HJ is different, and there is some
education that goes when youbring a novel solution to the
market. But you know, as we walkthem through the value
attributes. From the H J'sperspective, we haven't had any
issues where they have refusedto to approve the solution. So

Tim Montague (04:30):
one of the holy grails, of course, for solar
batteries, is bringing down theL COE though the long term cost
of energy. And I'm curious ifI'm a C&I solar developer,
installer, okay, an EPC, and I'musing traditional battery
storage. These are, you know,containers that are, say, 10 by

(04:52):
10 by 10, or 10 by 20, or 10 by40. And now you're mixing. It up
with this, basically adistributed solution. How does
that pencil in the greaterscheme of things? Because, as we
all know, money really talks insolar. It

Jordan Harris (05:10):
certainly does.
And I think you know, if youlook at the total cost of a
project, hardware is only partof it, and you've got to think
about all the soft costs. And asyou get into the smaller C&I
projects, which is our sweetspot, those soft costs can
become significant part of theoverall project cost. When you
streamline the you know, systemwith a building block approach

(05:33):
that we provide, you eliminatemany or all of those soft costs
and ultimately provides lowertotal installed cost and
improved project economics.

Tim Montague (05:45):
Well, what else should our listeners know about
yada, I think you are on yourway to becoming a household
name, and I can't wait to see itcome to Illinois, but you tell
me, do you have projects in theMidwest now?

Jordan Harris (05:59):
I think we're designing some in we've got some
that'll be getting deployed asfar north as Minnesota this
summer, when the Gen twos arethe Yata blocks available. And,
yeah, we're open to all 50states for sure.

Tim Montague (06:14):
So anything else we should know?

Jordan Harris (06:17):
No, we're designing like, as I said, we're
designing systems now, and we'llbe delivering product in late q2

Tim Montague (06:26):
tell us a little about little bit about your
background. How did you come toYana and and renewable energy?

Jordan Harris (06:34):
Thank you. Yes.
So my prior experience was inventure deployed more than a
billion dollars in the solar andbattery storage value chains
that's pretty well connected tothe challenges with the C&I
market. And as I got to knowyada, I believe that they had a
solution that could reallyunlock the C&I market. And so
I've been thinking about jumpinginto an operating role. And, you

(06:55):
know, it's it's been a great,great journey. We've got a
fantastic team and reallyexcited for the future of the
company. Fantastic.

Tim Montague (07:06):
Check out all of our content at
cleanpowerhour.com Please giveus a rating and a review on
Apple or Spotify. Follow us onYouTube and reach out to me on
LinkedIn with that. How can ourlisteners find you, Jordan? You

Jordan Harris (07:18):
can find me on LinkedIn. You can also find me
at Jordan, at yottaenergy.com,

Tim Montague (07:24):
I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage so.