
This domestic installation was on a farm. Initially a portable trailer was purchased. This trailer was used to take out on the farm to provide lighting where needed. This trailer had 1 x 7.7 kWh SoNick battery, a 5 kVa Victron Multiplus inverter and 3 x 250W solar panels. 3 panels are not enough to keep the batteries fully charged depending on how much power is drawn from the batteries. The trailer was then plugged in to the household power supply to recharge the batteries.

A Venus box was also incorporated in the system so the status of the battery could be monitored whenever the trailer was within range of internet. The trailer was set up so it could be plugged into an external power supply, like a house or alternatively a power plug can allow the trailer to supply power.
After some time, it was also decided to utilise the trailer to perform welding on the farm but it was found the inverters weren’t able to handle the draw required. It was then decided to upgrade the trailer to 1 x 9.6 kWh SoNick battery, and 2 x 5 kVa Victron Multiplus inverters.


This is an area with frequent power outages, often for many days, so the ability to add batteries to the household solar was then looked at. After some consultations it was then decided to upgrade the household solar system to include batteries.
10 kW solar array was added to a farm shed along with another 9.6 kWh SoNick battery. This was setup so the trailer could be included in the system to increase the battery capacity to be available in the dairy shed when the trailer wasn’t being used in the field.

Sodium Nickel Chloride (SoNick) batteries were selected as they are the most environmentally friendly battery available. They are completely safe with no off-gassing or fire risk, meaning there are no safety issues with installing the batteries. As the SoNick batteries operate with no temperature effects and no degradation from -20°C to +60°C there are no issues with either heat or freezing temperatures that are often experienced and the batteries don’t require air conditioning to keep them cool or heaters to heat them enough for them to work.
Lithium-ion batteries weren’t considered due to their environmental impact including difficulty in recycling lithium batteries at end of life.
An electric vehicle was purchased just after the battery installation was installed. There is enough power in the system to charge the electric vehicle at least once a week. The electric vehicle is put on to charge when there is ample solar and if it isn’t fully charged at the end of the day, it is turned off and the charge is finished the next day.
Fixed Application
– independent domestic power supply
System Objective – to provide renewable power and stable power supply during blackouts,
Commissioned – December, 2020
Installed PV – 10 kW
Victron Smart solar 250V MPPT
Inverter capacity – Victron Multiplus-II 5KVA
Victron Venus CGX for remote communications and monitoring
Battery storage – 9.6 kWh
Portable Application
– portable power supply
System Objective – to provide portable renewable power
Commissioned – July, 2019
Installed PV – 750 W
Victron Smart solar 150V MPPT
Inverter capacity – 2 x Victron Multiplus 5KVA
Victron Venus CGX for remote communications and monitoring
Battery storage – 9.6 kWh
If you would like to know more about getting safe, reliable, recyclable, SoNick (molten salt) battery storage for your own home, business or micro-grid application visit us at https://gridedge.com.au/