An Arizona scheme to study the use of energy storage and smart inverters in integrating solar to the grid has contracted the deployment of 4MW of AES Energy Storage’s lithium battery systems.

While regulators in the state are poised to rule next week on the value of solar to the network and consumers, ending what Energy-Storage.News’ solar sister site PV Tech reported today amounts to “years of drawn-out discourse”, execution of this project, for utility Arizona Public Service (APS) is already underway.

The 4MW of storage will be deployed as two separate 2MW installations of AES’ Advancion energy storage systems. They will form part of APS’ ongoing ‘Solar Partner Program’, which evaluates the possibilities for integrating a high penetration of PV on the grid.

The utility has already put 10MW of PV onto more than 1,500 customers’ rooftops through the programme. Participants receive a US$30 monthly bill credit for 20 years and do not have to pay for panels themselves. APS claims this will help inform them and other utilities around the country on how smart inverters and storage can play a part in lowering emissions, maintaining reliability of the system and best manage peak demand while renewable energy assets increase their share of generation.

‘The best renewable energy is the type a customer never thinks about’

AES’ Advancion systems will be located in the cities of Surprise and Buckeye and will be used to keep electricity service reliable and to meet times of high demand and high electricity prices. They will be among the first Advancion systems to be under utility ownership, with AES having opened up the platform to third-party ownership in 2015. There are some 120 customers with PV installed through the APS Solar Partner Program in the two cities.

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Enphase recently announced its involvement in one of the world’s first apartment building projects using solar panels, battery storage and software-based energy management – and it’s in Australia.

The system was installed at building in Newtown, Sydney; operated by student housing co-operative Stucco.

The installation features 30 kilowatts of solar panels, 114 Enphase S230 microinverters and 36 Enphase AC Batteries. Combined, the batteries have a total of 43.2 kilowatts of storage capacity and represent the largest Enphase storage system commissioned anywhere in the world to date.

The system is expected to provide up to 80 percent of energy requirements for the building; which is home to 40 residents.

“In addition to being the largest Enphase Storage System commissioned since the Enphase AC Battery was launched in Australia in August 2016, this project illustrates how solar and storage can co-exist in multi-unit residential buildings, said Nathan Dunn, managing director of Enphase Asia-Pacific.

The Enphase AC Battery is an affordable modular system, enabling system owners to add capacity as required. Demand for AC battery in Australia and New Zealand has been strong and in September the company forecast 70,000 of its batteries would be purchased in the two countries over the next year.

Enphase microinverters are also a popular solar product; with approximately 13 million shipped globally to date. More than 540,000 Enphase residential and commercial systems have been deployed around the world.

Unlike conventional string inverters installed with many residential and commercial solar power systems, microinverters operate independently; with one of the compact units associated with each panel in the array. This means if a single solar panel is malfunctioning for whatever reason, it won’t pull down the electricity production of the entire system.

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(TNS) — Bill Coleman needed to replace the roof on his Los Altos home. The tech entrepreneur decided to package new roof tiles with a solar power system and a battery unit to store electrical power.

The solar panels have dropped his electric bills to nearly nothing, and the rechargeable battery pack from Sunverge has kept the power on at his house during blackouts. It’s quiet and, so far, hassle-free, he said. The extra expense was worth the peace of mind.

“The lights don’t even blink,” Coleman said. “They stay on.”

Coleman is part of a small but growing group of homeowners coupling solar panels with rechargeable energy storage systems. These battery units provide power during emergencies and can potentially reduce power usage and bills.

But it’s also a new technology, which means it can be expensive and unreliable.

“At this stage of the game, energy storage isn’t quite for everyone,” said Cory Klausmann, vice president of sales at Simmitri. “There’s a select demographic that it works really well with.”

A typical home battery storage unit is a collection of rechargeable, lithium ion batteries, connected to power-generating solar systems.

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The two top competitors in the home energy storage market — a market that barely exists at present — are preparing for burgeoning sales in coming years as renewable energy supplies grow more common.

One name is familiar: Tesla, the electric car maker, which makes a battery called the Powerwall to store rooftop solar power at home.

The other name is Sonnen, a European company little known in the U.S. that has sold more than 15,000 lithium ion storage batteries to homes and businesses, primarily in its home country, Germany, a global leader in renewable energy.

Their products are similar but their business strategies are not.

At an energy storage conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, representatives of each company laid out the differences.

Tesla, whose merger with solar rooftop giant SolarCity is imminent, envisions a wide network of Tesla retail stores where customers can shop for an electric car, a solar roof and a battery to store excess energy for later.

“We see a convergence in a number of ways around the consumer experience,” said Mateo Jaramillo, vice president of products and programs for Tesla’s energy arm. “We obviously think a lot of that starts with the vehicle.”

Electric car customers will naturally be interested in related technologies, he said.

Sonnen, which counts General Electric as a major investor, works with contractors who install solar roofs and power supplies, and emphasizes its software systems that help customers manage home and business energy use.

As the solar rooftop business grows, “you won’t make money welling power; you’ll make money managing power,” said Philipp Schroder, Sonnen’s head of sales and marketing.

And unlike Tesla, which — in partnership with Panasonic — is making batteries that form the core of the Powerwall at a giant factory in Nevada, Sonnen will buy from suppliers.

“We don’t care where the battery is coming from, from Panasonic or anyone else,” said Schroder.

Tesla believes that having control of the battery manufacturing process will lead to lower costs and better designs.

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Europe’s first grid-scale Tesla Powerpack energy storage system installation was recently officially unveiled in Somerset (England), according to recent reports.

The new Tesla Powerpack installation was designed to store the electricity generated at a solar photovoltaic (PV) project located at the site. The energy storage project, which was developed by Camborne Energy Storage, is intended to provide enough electricity to supply for the needs of about 500 regional households if necessary.

The UK’s Energy Minister Baroness Neville Rolfe attended the recent unveiling event and stated:

“We welcome this exciting project from Tesla and Camborne. Innovation in storage technologies will help manage our electricity grid more efficiently, support greater energy security and, crucially, drive down consumer bills.

“Our upcoming industrial strategy will build on this work further, working with businesses to ensure the UK continues to be at the forefront of low-carbon technology, creating the conditions for future success.”

Business Green provides more: “The industry has been calling on the government to provide a clearer policy landscape for energy storage projects and take steps to accelerate investment in the sector. However, Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark delivered a boost for the fledgling industry last month, delivering a speech in which he argued energy storage and smart grid technologies would play a critical role in the UK’s energy system in the future and launching a call for evidence on how smart systems should be developed.”

The managing director at developer Camborne Energy Storage, Dan Taylor, commented at the recent unveiling as well: “Camborne is pleased to have developed Europe’s first Tesla grid scale installation by co-locating with a solar farm in Somerset, England. This project is already commercially operational providing low carbon power during times of high demand. Our first co-located site is an early step in the right direction, both for Camborne and for the industry and we look forward to continuing to deliver further low carbon power to the UK.”

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Should you opt for Tesla’s new Powerwall 2.0, or should you look elsewhere? We’ll show you the top 10 alternative products.

With the launch of Tesla’s new and improved Powerwall 2.0 last week, all eyes are now on Musk and co to deliver. The hype became even bigger, after the announcement of a merger with SolarCity, which Tesla is about to sign later on this month.

Home energy storage is definitely the way to go if you are looking to (partly) step away from the grid. We do hear a lot about the Powerwall, but Musk is not the only one tapping into this market. There are various options out there, with specifications to meet every need.

We have selected 10 of the best alternatives out there to give you an idea of possibilities. However, first things first. Let’s take a look at the specifications of Powerwall 2.0 so that we can make an honest comparison.

Tesla’s new home energy storage device is a 269-pound lithium ion battery. The cells are made by Panasonic, while the pack and the module are built by Tesla. One module can store up to 13.5 kWh of energy and comes at a price of $5,500, which also includes an inverter. If you would like to store more power, the Powerwall allows the connection of up to nine individual units. Installation costs around $1,000, with starting day sometime in January next year.

So, here are the others:

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Vermont Business Magazine South Burlington-based Dynapower Company and Samsung SDI announced Wednesday the introduction of an integrated behind-the-meter energy storage system built on their respective proven technologies. The initial release of the system will be a 250 kW/550 kWh offering, with a 100 kW two-hour system to follow. The integrated energy storage offering provides energy storage system vendors, project developers, and utilities with a fully engineered solution that reduces costs for commercial and industrial end users in the deployment of energy storage. This line of systems will incorporate Dynapower’s recently released Generation 2 MPS product line of behind-the-meter energy storage inverters(link is external) and Samsung SDI’s recently released E2 battery solution.

The two companies share a wealth of field proven integration experience of their technologies across a wide range of ESS projects, sizes, and applications including the Electrical Training Institute Net Zero Plus building microgrid and Duke Energy Notrees 36MW/14MWh ESS repower.

The new Dynapower/Samsung SDI integrated energy storage system offering for behind-the-meter applications in commercial and industrial markets. Dynapower photo.

“We have worked alongside Samsung SDI for a number of years and are excited to take that collaborative effort to the next level with the introduction of an integrated energy storage solution,” said Adam M. Knudsen, President of Dynapower. “As the energy storage industry has rapidly evolved we have seen a clear demand from the market for engineered solutions that are flexible and proven. This is a solution customers can rely upon.”

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Commercial and industrial businesses bear 98% of the tens of billions of dollars in costs associated with power outages in the United States each year. Despite these costs in lost production more than 80 percent of C & I energy storage installations today are NOT used for backup power.

With the cost of adding backup power being nominal when selecting the right inverter, and a pipeline of 1.3 GW of commercial and industrial energy storage installations forecast by 2021, Dynapower examines considerations for developers and end users when selecting an energy storage inverter to provide valuable backup power for their installation and maximum value for their energy storage installation.

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