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.

Connect with Jordan

LinkedIn: Jordan Harris

Website: Yotta Energy

Transcript

Jordan Harris: 0:50

That is really the secret sauce, and that's what's critical to making this work. We've got a passive, three phase thermal management system, keeps the battery in its ideal operating range over the course of the day, preserves the health of the battery, and then at night, it cools down and repeats the cycle the next day. This also acts as a fire barrier. We're using LFP technologies, so that is safe, or LFP chemistry, so that is one of the safer chemistries. But the thermal management system acts as a fire barrier, and then we've got natural standoff between these these systems, they'll typically be three to four feet away on a roof, so more or less thermal runaway is completely eliminated by the by the architecture and by the design of the system.

intro: 1:37

Are you speeding the energy transition here at the Clean Power Hour, our host, Tim Montague, bring you the best in solar, batteries and clean technologies every week. Want to go deeper into decarbonization. We do too. We're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it together. We can speed the energy transition.

Tim Montague: 2:03

We're here at inner solar San Diego, and I am with Jordan Harris, the CEO of Yata energy. Welcome to the Clean Power Hour. Jordan, Thanks, Tim, great to be here. I've been following Yana for a couple of years, and you have a new product out which we're going to talk about. You have made a mark in the industry because you have a rooftop storage device that replaces ballast blocks on rooftop solar. What is the new product? Jordan, the

Jordan Harris: 2:30

new product is it's the auto block. You can see it behind you on the wall. It's a modular building block type energy storage product that deploys in line with the solar panel, much like a micro inverter does. So we've expanded upon module level power electronics with module level energy storage, and it streamlines everything from design permitting, installation and O and M and so customers are have loved the gen one product, and gen two is going through UL certification and will be getting produced this This June. So

Tim Montague: 3:10

I noted that you also make a do. You call it a micro inverter. You make an inverter as well that pairs with your storage device. What's the status of the inverter?

Jordan Harris: 3:21

Correct? It's a four port micro inverter that's designed, designed for yada. We we really deliver a solution. And so it's you can deploy with or without batteries. And we've also got a monitoring platform that you know goes along with that, provides alerts, alarms, troubleshooting, helps with our installation and commissioning, and eventually we'll add more feature sets to it and ultimately deliver more value to to our customers,

Tim Montague: 3:53

dollars and HJ when it comes to putting batteries on the rooftop.

Jordan Harris: 3:58

So thank you. Yes, that is really the secret sauce, and that's what's critical to making this work. We've got a passive, three phase thermal management system. Keeps the battery in its ideal operating range over the course of the day, preserves the health of the battery, and then at night, it cools down and repeats the cycle the next day. This also acts as a fire barrier. We're using LFP technology, so that is safer LFP chemistry, so that is one of the safer chemistries. But the thermal management system acts as a fire barrier, and then we've got natural standoff between these these systems. They'll typically be three to four feet away on a roof, so more or less thermal runaway is completely eliminated by the by the architecture and by the design of the system. I

Tim Montague: 4:47

did talk to one installer recently who has successfully permitted a Yana project in Southern California. But has it happened that HJ have refused to permit the technology?

Jordan Harris: 5:02

Listen, every HJ is different, and there is some education that goes when you bring a novel solution to the market. But you know, as we walk them through the value attributes. From the H J's perspective, we haven't had any issues where they have refused to to approve the solution. So

Tim Montague: 5:20

one of the holy grails, of course, for solar batteries, is bringing down the L COE though the long term cost of energy. And I'm curious if I'm a C&I solar developer, installer, okay, an EPC, and I'm using traditional battery storage. These are, you know, containers that are, say, 10 by 10 by 10, or 10 by 20, or 10 by 40. And now you're mixing. It up with this, basically a distributed solution. How does that pencil in the greater scheme of things? Because, as we all know, money really talks in solar. It

Jordan Harris: 6:01

certainly does. And I think you know, if you look at the total cost of a project, hardware is only part of it, and you've got to think about all the soft costs. And as you get into the smaller C&I projects, which is our sweet spot, those soft costs can become significant part of the overall project cost. When you streamline the you know, system with a building block approach that we provide, you eliminate many or all of those soft costs and ultimately provides lower total installed cost and improved project economics.

Tim Montague: 6:35

Well, what else should our listeners know about yada, I think you are on your way to becoming a household name, and I can't wait to see it come to Illinois, but you tell me, do you have projects in the Midwest now?

Jordan Harris: 6:50

I think we're designing some in we've got some that'll be getting deployed as far north as Minnesota this summer, when the Gen twos are the Yata blocks available. And, yeah, we're open to all 50 states for sure.

Tim Montague: 7:05

So anything else we should know?

Jordan Harris: 7:08

No, we're designing like, as I said, we're designing systems now, and we'll be delivering product in late q2

Tim Montague: 7:17

tell us a little about little bit about your background. How did you come to Yana and and renewable energy?

Jordan Harris: 7:25

Thank you. Yes. So my prior experience was in venture deployed more than a billion dollars in the solar and battery storage value chains that's pretty well connected to the challenges with the C&I market. And as I got to know yada, I believe that they had a solution that could really unlock the C&I market. And so I've been thinking about jumping into an operating role. And, you know, it's it's been a great, great journey. We've got a fantastic team and really excited for the future of the company. Fantastic.

Tim Montague: 7:56

Check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com Please give us a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify. Follow us on YouTube and reach out to me on LinkedIn with that. How can our listeners find you, Jordan? You

Jordan Harris: 8:09

can find me on LinkedIn. You can also find me at Jordan, at yottaenergy.com,

Tim Montague: 8:14

I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage so.