3.2V 320Ah Prismatic LiFePO4 Cell

The CE-320 is a 3.2V 320Ah prismatic cell, 1024Wh, on M8 terminals. It sits at the top of the large-format storage class, sized for long-duration systems that hold four hours or more of energy. Sixteen in series make a 51.2V string of 16.4 kilowatt-hours.

Long Duration

What four hours of storage means

Grid and commercial storage is moving from one or two hours of duration to four and beyond, because a longer battery covers the whole evening peak rather than its worst hour, and shifts more solar generation from midday into the night. A higher-capacity cell reaches that duration with the same string count and the same footprint. Where a 280Ah cell gave a two-hour system, a 320Ah cell in the same rack lifts the stored energy without adding cells, joints or floor space.

The trade for capacity is a matched cycle life. These cells rate 8,000 to 10,000 cycles at 80 percent depth, which on one deep cycle a day is fifteen to twenty-five years, roughly the design life of the solar array they sit beside. The industry term for that pairing is solar-lifetime storage, a battery meant to last as long as the panels.

Data

Datasheet

String configurations

Duration and the evening peak

The reason storage duration keeps growing is the shape of the grid’s demand. A one-hour battery covers only the sharpest point of the evening peak, and a two-hour battery covers the peak but little of the shoulder around it. Four hours reaches across the whole high-price window and holds midday solar for use after dark, which is where a solar-heavy grid has its largest surplus and its largest shortfall. A 320Ah cell is what lets a system hit that duration without growing its footprint, since the extra energy comes from the cell rather than from more racks. That is why long-duration projects reach for the top of the large-format range.

The Systems

Where the cell lands

At 16.4 kilowatt-hours a string, the CE-320 fills the same three tiers as its neighbours, scaled up. A single 16S string is a large home or small commercial wall. Parallel strings build the 100kW/215kWh-class commercial cabinet and the megawatt-hour containers behind utility and microgrid projects. An 8S build at 25.6V and 8.2 kilowatt-hours suits a large off-grid house or a telecom hub that outgrew its 48V shelf.

The economics of the larger cell

At container scale the cell size decides the project’s fixed costs. A higher-capacity cell reaches a target megawatt-hour with fewer cells, fewer modules and less wiring, so the same energy lands on less concrete with less labour to commission it. Across a 5-megawatt-hour container that is measurable land, construction and connection savings, and it compounds over a portfolio of sites. Buying the cell rather than a finished container puts a developer upstream of that, specifying the unit every larger number is counted from and holding the cell-level records the finance and the warranty are built on.

Method

Building at this capacity

The build is the same discipline the whole large-format class follows. Assemble strings in place, since a 16S bank runs near 96 kilograms of cells. Top-balance in parallel at 3.65V before the first series link, pull the M8 studs to 12 newton-metres, and give each string its own BMS and fuse before paralleling at a high-voltage bus through equal-length cable. Set the inverter to the LFP profile, keep the low-temperature charge cutoff active in outdoor enclosures, and commission each string with a 0.5C discharge against a timer.

Every cell links to its factory test record by QR code. Project lots ship from single batches so the strings in a cabinet or container age together, matched on capacity and internal resistance, and prove out at or above the 320Ah plate on a 0.5C test.

Temperature and storage set the last of the numbers. These cells discharge from minus twenty to sixty degrees and accept charge above freezing, so an outdoor container needs the low-temperature cutoff or a heater on a winter site, and an indoor cabinet rarely trips either. Idle stock rests at 30 to 50 percent charge and drifts 2 to 3 percent a month. Delivered capacity proves out at or above the 320-amp-hour plate on a 0.5C test at 25 degrees, which is the figure a commissioning discharge confirms string by string before the system carries load.