Power-One announced that the company will showcase a prototype of its new residential energy storage system REACT (Renewable Energy Accumulator and Conversion Technology) at Intersolar Europe. The PV storage solution will be available at the beginning of 2014.
The prototype energy storage system consists of a 4.6kW single-phase grid connected Power-One inverter and a lithium-ion battery providing 2kWh usable capacity. A smaller version with a 3.6kW inverter will also be available. The solution thereby allows home owners and landlords to store any excess energy produced during peak times for times with higher energy demands. By giving system owners the ability and flexibility to use excess energy generated to charge their batteries, this surplus electricity can be used to power home appliances during times when the PV installation does not produce any or insufficient energy.
"Making PV energy available upon demand is a great step towards total self-consumption as well as energy independence and opens up a new opportunity for selling PV and energy storage systems, said Paolo Casini, Vice President, Marketing at Power-One. With our new storage solution we enable our customers to align energy production and consumption with their needs, thereby helping them to increase their self-consumption and save money on their energy bills."
"At the same time, residential energy storage systems require distributors and installers to collaborate more closely with the home owners to calculate their energy usage patterns. This way they can ensure that they fully benefit from their PV and energy storage systems. This is why we will work together with our partners to establish sales strategies and tools for our new PV solutions in the upcoming months," continues Casini.
To ensure the safety and longevity of the lithium-ion battery, Power-One needed to design the inverter according to the voltage and current values required by the battery. Furthermore, the company had to ensure that the inverter is capable of communicating with the battery management system. Despite these additional challenges, the new product will benefit from the advantages Power-Ones customers expect from the companys expertise in inverters: the storage system will offer dual MPPTs, broad input voltage ranges as well as high efficiencies. Moreover, Power-One plans to add basic load management outputs and an auxiliary AC output, which will allow operation of the system in the event of a power outage.
The energy storage system has been designed for a long life-cycle with a ten year expected life of the battery. The solution can also be expanded by additional battery modules to up three times its original size. Due to the integrated Ethernet port, the energy storage system allows for remote or local monitoring without requiring any additional interfaces.
Power-Ones energy storage system will be launched in Q1 of 2014 in Italy and Germany. While Germany is the most advanced country regarding defining and incentivizing self-consumption within the residential PV market, Italy is also a very promising market as a premium is paid for self-consumption today. Other interesting markets for residential PV storage solutions include France, the UK and then, at a later stage, the U.S.
At Intersolar Europe 2013, Power-One is exhibiting the new energy storage system in hall B4, booth B4.330.
