Intersolar | www.bestmag.co.uk

Webinar on energy technologies

News image:

Tags:

A webinar on energy storage technologies and strategies in Europe is being held by Intertsolar on May 20.

The webinar will outline the latest of energy storage technologies, show advanced operating control strategies to cover grid issues and allow DSOs the access to flexibility options, which are enabled by the combination of PV systems with batteries.

Speakers include Dr. Matthias Vetter, Fraunhofer ISE; Alfons Westgeest, EUROBAT and the moderator will be Daniela Schreiber, IBESA Storage Alliance.

Registration for the webinar is free, just follow this link: www.intersolarglobal.com/en/webinars/upcoming-webinars/pv-battery-system...

Intersolar Europe exhibition will be held on June 10-12th in Munich.

The event’s exhibition and conference focuses on photovoltaics, PV production technologies, energy storage systems and renewable heating technologies.

Germany dominates Intersolar ESS awards

News image:

Tags:

EES awards

Intersolar

germany

Germany and lithium-ion dominate the list of finalists in this year’s Intersolar Awards for electrical energy storage.

Ideal Power appoints Ryan O’Keefe as senior vice president

News image:

Ryan O'Keefe, new vice president at Ideal Power

Tags:

US power conversion specialist Ideal Power has hired Ryan O’Keefe to take over the role as senior vice president business development in order to lead the company's sales efforts.

Before joining Ideal Power, O’Keefe served as senior vice president and chief revenue officer at German energy storage firm Younicos. Prior to Younicos, O'Keefe spent eight years with NextEra Energy, where he was vice president of solar development, leading the development of solar projects in California and Spain, worth of $2 billion.

“We believe Ryan's industry experience and relationships will be instrumental as we continue to target new commercialization partners and opportunities for our innovative power conversion products," said Ideal Power chief executive officer Dan Brdar.

O'Keefe holds a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of business administration from Columbia University. He started his career with General Electric and held several leadership roles at General Electric facilities in the US and Mexico.

Ideal Power recently launched a hybrid converter family for off-grid storage systems at Intersolar America.

ViZn receives Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award

News image:

Tags:

Energy storage company ViZn Energy has won the Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award in the Energy Storage Industry category for 2014.

According to the Frost & Sullivan team, US-based ViZn Energy has been selected, because the company showed “customer value excellence” and “entrepreneurial spirit”.

ViZn Energy developed a zinc-iron redox flow battery for energy storage systems. ViZn Energy’s battery packs are mainly attached to microgrids and are designed to last two to four hours.

“The growing concern over environmentally friendly solutions has contributed significantly to the increasing demand for green technologies, fueling the need for renewable energy,” said Vishal Sapru, research manager at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

ViZn Energy recently won the Intersolar Europe’s 2014 Electrical Energy Storage Award.

The research for its flow battery was funded by the US Department of Energy. The company has plans to expand its manufacturing capacity at its facility in Montana, US and aims to produce in Europe and is seeking for investors.

ViZn seeks $25m for battery storage

News image:

Tags:

American-based flow battery developer ViZn Energy is to seek $25m to expand its manufacturing capacity.

The company told Bloomberg it expects to increase its zinc-iron flow battery production during the next six months. $25m should be “enough” to get the ViZn fully funded. “We’ll be on our way to just pure execution until we’re cash-flow positive,” said ViZn’s chief executive Ron Van Dell.

Ideal Power launches hybrid converter family for off-grid storage systems

News image:

Tags:

At the Intersolar North America conference in San Francisco, Ideal Power has introduced a three-port, 30kW hybrid converter family for off-grid, grid-tied and grid resilient applications to integrate energy storage and solar power.

The developer of disruptive power conversion stated that due to an improvement in size, weight, cost and efficiency, the converter is able to integrate multiple power sources while lowering the cost of delivering grid resiliency during blackouts and reducing dependency on diesel fuel for off-grid applications.

The hybrid converter production line uses the company’s Power Packet Switching Architecture in a three-port product. This shall allow to combine PV inverter capabilities on one DC port, bi-directional battery converter capabilities on the second DC port and provide an AC port supporting both grid-tied and off-grid applications.

"We also expect our hybrid converter to improve modularity and interoperability, so that microgrid systems can migrate from custom engineered projects to using standard plug-and-play components," said Dan Brdar, chief executive officer of Ideal Power.

Ideal Power said during Intersolar North America that it expects the initial installation of the system in commercial buildings that have to improve grid resiliency to blackouts.

At Intersolar Europe, the hybrid converter received the 2014 electrical energy storage award for energy efficiency improvement and cost effectiveness of combined energy storage and PV applications.

Saft launches 15-year warranty for Li-ion energy storage modules

News image:

Tags:

saft

Intersolar

lithium-ion

Battery manufacturer Saft is to offer a long-term warranty extension option for its domestic Li-ion energy storage systems (ESS).

The modules are based on Saft’s Li-ion battery systems that deliver 2kWh of energy and up to 4kW of power. The ESS system with the 15-year warranty is integrated in Bosch’s BPT-S 5 Hybrid energy management and storage solution. The BPT-S 5 system, launched in 2012, integrates apart from Saft’s modules, a solar inverter and an energy management system.

Germany PV energy storage potential "underdeveloped"

News image:

Tags:

Intersolar

PV storage

germany

Opportunities to retrofit solar PV systems with energy storage systems are highly underdeveloped in Germany, battery industry experts agreed at a panel discussion at Intersolar 2014 in Munich.

Sales of local PV systems are declining in Germany. An energy storage subsidy programme by the German government has not received the expected resonance from consumers, the panel members agreed. Matthias Vetter, Head of Department PV Off-Grid Solutions and Battery System Technology at Fraunhofer ISE, said the government should rethink its subsidy programme.

ViZn Energy wins Intersolar Europe’s 2014 Electrical Energy Storage Award

News image:

Tags:

critical power

vizn

Intersolar

ViZn Energy Systems has been selected as the winner of Intersolar Europe’s 2014 Electrical Energy Storage (ees) Award for its Z20 energy storage system.

The Z20 is an 80kW system, including a redox flow battery, housed in a 20ft shipping container. The technology is targeted for commercial applications from 160kWh and currently in the field for testing.

“The jury was impressed by the well-designed, ecological prototypes, which avoid the use of dangerous substances in storage systems,” said the ees judges in an official statement. “The use of cost-efficient raw materials translates to the potential for considerable cost reductions, particularly in comparison with today’s vanadium redox-flow technology.”

“After years of research, adaptation and testing, ViZn’s technology is ready to make the energy market more efficient for microgrids,” said Ron Van Dell, CEO of ViZn Energy Systems.

The ees Award made its debut this year and honours technical innovation, economic viability and solutions that bring benefits to the industry and environment. Intersolar Europe is the world’s largest exhibition for the solar industry and partners.