new markets remote from the grid - sunwindenergy.com · according to florian schmidt, project...
TRANSCRIPT
Sun & Wind Energy 10/2009114
G iven the current market situation, the off-grid segment is becoming increasingly interes-ting. “The rapid growth in population as well
as the large proportion of the rural population wit-hout access to the electricity grid are ensuring that this technology is becoming increasingly attractive,” according to Florian Schmidt, Project Manager of the ‘Global Off-Grid PV Markets’ study, which was produ-ced at the beginning of this year by EuPD Research. The study reveals the most important off-grid markets as well as the various potentials and hurdles in the market development. According to the findings, the most important potential for off-grid technology is in Africa. The greatest market share, with more than 50
%, is currently held by the small system segment wi-th typical outputs of less than 100 W, followed by off-grid systems for industrial applications and public buildings. The surveyed market players expect, in particular, that the small system segment in the pri-vate and public sector will continue to grow, achie-ving a market share of 75 % by 2012. What may also become increasingly significant, particularly in South Africa, are small mobile applications and PV installa-tions for operating infrastructure systems.
In the long term half the overall volume?
As reported by Schmidt and his co-author Markus Wackerbeck, the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform predicts that the worldwide potential for off-grid systems could reach approximately 20 % of the global PV market volume by 2010 and even 50 % by 2040. Such forecasts are, of course, not particularly reliable.
The targets envisaged cannot be achieved from a standing start anyway. According to Schmidt, the first task is to overcome existing hurdles, such as the is-sue of financing: “Some of the findings from our most
New markets remote from
the grid
In the search for alternatives to grid-connected
photovoltaics, attention is focussing on the off-grid segment.
There is sufficient potential available, particularly in the
emerging and developing countries in Africa. Manufacturers
of stand-alone inverters will also benefit from a development
of the market in this direction.
The reCUBE from Kaco is a mobile and emission-free power supply system for off-grid regions. Photo: Kaco
Photovoltaics off-grid inverters
Sun & Wind Energy 10/2009 115
recent study show that the prices for PV systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America actually exceed those in the European on-grid markets. To enable the pop-ulation to use PV systems, various funding instru-ments will need to be drawn upon, ranging from mi-cro-credits and micro-leasing to social programmes. Therefore in order to operate off-grid PV systems in developing countries, it will be first and foremost nec-essary to approach development banks and non-gov-ernment organisations (NGOs),” explains Schmidt. “They are committed to increasing awareness about PV products as an alternative to conventional electric-ity supplies, they develop PV projects together with other stakeholders and offer interested third parties access to the financial market.”
The expectation that off-grid systems will become increasingly competitive is based on the predicted lowering of module prices with a simultaneous in-crease in population and economic growth rates in developing countries. The costs for constructing new electricity grids and the expected rise in prices for conventional fuels also provide reasons for the pre-dicted increase in market opportunities for off-grid solar power systems.
Rural electrification
In large parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, there is still no comprehensive electricity supply. Not only is this having an adverse effect on both the urgently
required expansion of the agricultural sector and the economically desirable development of commercial and industrial infrastructure, it is first and foremost causing suffering for 1.7 billion people. This amounts to a quarter of the global population, who have to forego elementary things such as electrical light, wa-ter and heat supplies. Furthermore, development aid workers repeatedly complain about the lack of electronic communication means such as radios, TVs, telephones and the Internet. And last but not least, the lack of access to electricity or energy supplies is frequently the cause of poverty and conflicts.
The graphic presents the annual off-grid PV installation rates in Africa from 2001 to 2006. Potential reasons for decrea-sing installation rates in 2006 include the high costs, political unrest and low availability of modules.
Analysed sources: Solar23, EPIA, SolarWorld AG, REC, REN21, RWE Schott, Strategies
Unlimited, GTZ, ESDA, TASEA. Graphic: BSW Solar
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off-grid inverters
Solar home systems
In addition to self-sustaining power generation sys-tems at the village level, smaller system units are al-so being increasingly deployed that consist of a solar generator, storage system and charge controller. In-dependent of the grid, these can supply individual homes that would otherwise not be reached as they are remote from settlements supplied with electrici-ty. Such solar power systems are now frequently known as a ‘Solar Home System’ (SHS). Numerous SHSs have now been installed during the course of electrification programmes in various developing countries. These include the government-funded project from Namibia presented below.
Only 6 % of rural homes in Namibia have access to electricity. Most families in the countryside still use candles, firewood and petroleum to cover their individual needs. At the beginning of the project, hardly anyone recognised the possibilities and op-portunities offered by electrical power supplies. This meant that first of all the local population had to be educated. Therefore as a first step, free solar power systems were installed on the roofs of 30 schools, 40 clinics and 10 agricultural service centres with the aim of familiarising people with solar home systems and to awaken their interest in buying them. In the end, around 600 homes took advantage of the subsi-dies available from the government’s ‘HomePower!’ programme and purchased a small solar power sys-tem. The second main task was to train local trades-men to enable them to install and service the SHSs on their own. This created a comprehensive network of 100 technicians from all of Namibia’s provinces.
Among the many positive aspects revealed by the Namibian government’s evaluation of the project, one deserves to be highlighted in particular: several school teachers emphasised that the electrical light-ing now installed in the schools and the pupils’ homes has led to a significant improvement in learn-ing. That in itself is a hopeful sign for the future.
Despite the high market potential, very little commitment has been shown until now by private enterprises in Uganda: uncertainty about local mar-ket and investment conditions as well as a lack of technical and commercial expertise among local business partners are hampering the market intro-duction. To meet these challenges, a weeklong train-ing programme called ‘Develop Solar!’ was held in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Five leading solar com-panies – Centrosolar AG, HOPPECKE Batterien Gm-bH & Co KG, Phaesun GmbH, SMA Solar Technology AG and Steca Elektronik GmbH – trained 60 partici-pants for a week. Thirty Ugandan solar companies took part in the one-week training programme, in-cluding numerous representatives from potential in-dustrial customers, such as the telecommunica-tions, banking and financial sectors. The aim was to consolidate the technical and commercial skills and knowledge of the Ugandan solar companies in order to develop competent and well-trained partners in the region. “The exchange between German and East African companies offers interesting economic prospects for both sides,” explains Rafael Wiese, re-sponsible for the Rural Electrification division in the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar). “The critical issue is to establish such an exchange in the long term.”
Innovations in the stand-alone inverter marketManufacturers of inverters can also benefit in future from the expansion of the off-grid market in develop-ing and emerging countries. Although not all of them have stand-alone inverters in their product range, the majority of manufacturers are not resting on their lau-rels. They are either constantly reworking and ex-panding their range of off-grid inverters or develop-
ing entirely new concepts with ad-ditional functions, such as for hybrid grids, for example.When asked about new stand-alone inverters, Managing Di-rector Andreas Rüegg from Ger-
many’s Solon SE points out their ongoing further developments with
new and improved semiconductors and refined software for achieving a perfect sine
wave. According to Rüegg: “We’ve completely overhauled our devices while retaining their funda-mental features.” The product range for stand-alone inverters is graduated, beginning with devices in the Piccolo and Domino series for nominal voltages of 12
V and 24 V DC and continuous AC rated outputs be-tween 150 VA and 700 VA. The Allegro series has an additional inverter for a 48 V nominal voltage with an output of 1000 VA. For the 1,000 VA to 3,500 VA range, the customer can choose between the Top Charge and Top Class series, whereby the DC nominal voltages range between 12 V and 48 V. Two devices stand out from the otherwise regular graduation: the Top Class 25/110 with 110 V DC and the Top Class 3P three-phase inverter with 3 x 48 V DC and an output of 3,500 VA.
The inverters are equipped with the latest gener-ation of RISC processors that not only generate the sine wave but also monitor the battery bank and the inverter’s operating status. The output stage consists of a full bridge with MOSFET transistors. As Solon em-phasises, their inverters can temporarily operate with an overload of up to 300 %, which is indispensable for reliable operation when starting up compressors, pumps or heavy machinery.
RIPEnergy AG was founded in April 2004 and is head-quartered in Zollikon in Switzerland. Despite the com-pany’s short track record, the company claims there
The Hiphop pro from RIPEnergy is equipped with load recognition sensors and a sleep mode. Photo: RIPEnergy
www.outbackpower.com
Technical Support 360.618.4363Corporate Office 360.435.6030
OutBack Power Systems is a leading manufacturer of inverters, charge controllers, and balance
of system components for renewable energy. OutBack’s rugged inverter/chargers are designed
to survive in environments that would normally cause other inverter/chargers to fail, without
compromising outstanding performance and reliability. No matter where your location, no
matter what your power source, OutBack Power has the solution for you. With industry leading
home owners count on OutBack Power than any other company for their energy independence.
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is sufficient expertise available, “since the owners and employees have already more than 20 years of experience in the field of energy conversion, and their solutions and products have always been ground-breaking for the entire industry.” In 2008 and 2009, the company overhauled their entire range of sine wave inverters and relaunched them on the market. These include the Swing models in the lower class with 200 and 350 VA, the Jazz devices in the middle class with 700 and 1,000 VA and the Hiphop class for the upper output range with devices ranging between 1,500 and 5,000 VA. The Jazz and Hiphop classes are equipped with load recognition and sleep mode sen-sors, an integrated display for output, voltage, cur-rent, temperature and frequency, as well as an error recognition device.
IVT Innovative Versorgungstechnik GmbH, which spe-cialises in applications for the leisure sector, wants to launch new developments on the market in the com-ing year. Its SW series has been continually updated since its introduction in 2005, and now has a consid-erably improved overload cut-off device as well as im-proved disconnections with short circuits, deep dis-charges and excess temperatures, including an auto-matic restart. The company also claims that the opti-mised devices enable even difficult loads with high activation currents to be easily started. In addition,
the integrated output- and temperature-control-led fans are also relatively new.
Steca Elektronik GmbH unveiled its new Solarix PI 550 and PI 1100 models at the beginning of 2009. According to Steca, the devices have continuous AC outputs of 500 VA and 1,000 VA respectively. Sales Director Huguette Aust claims that the development led to innovations that have previously not existed in this form. Compared to the prede-cessor models, the most important improvements include the ability to have parallel connections and the master-slave concept, combined with greater flexibility and reduced energy consumption. Furthermore, the system can be easily expanded and both the efficiency and the over-load capacity have been improved. The devices are, however, not suita-ble for use in hybrid systems. This is where the Steca Xtender comes into play.
In addition to these inverters al-ready on the market, the Solarix PI 550-L60 has also been added during
the current year. It has an output of 500 VA and a DC input voltage of 12 V, whereby the output voltage is 115 V/60 Hz. The
company specifies an overload capacity of 300 % for 5 seconds, and a maximum efficiency of 93 %. This inverter has been specifically developed for the South American market.
In January 2009, Swiss manufacturer Studer Innotec launched six new stand-alone inverters on the market as part of its Xtender series. The name of the model series, namely XTM (for Xtender Middle Power), indi-cates their purpose: the new models are intended to supplement the existing series with medium output devices. They cover a power range between 1,500 and 3,500 VA. Their output-independent features cor-respond to the familiar XTH models. With its numer-ous functions, the Xtender series offers an unusual amount of diversity. The basic functions include the inverter, battery charger, transfer system and support for external AC power sources. These functions are combined and controlled fully automatically. The pro-grammable auxiliary contacts make it possible to con-nect to existing systems or use further functions. The Xtender series can be entirely configured by remote control. A particular highlight is the ‘Smart Boost’ function, which enables the inverter to increase the output of other AC power sources.
The KI stand-alone inverter series from Kaco new en-ergy GmbH encompasses three models with continu-ous AC outputs of 200, 800 and 1,600 VA respective-ly. The galvanically isolated devices with MOSFET semiconductors supply a pure sine wave voltage with a high efficiency. The devices are also optionally available with a solar charge controller. Kaco also provides software for system monitoring. An interest-ing innovation is the reCUBE, a mobile and emission-free power supply system for off-grid regions. The core of the system is provided by a K 3000 stand-alone inverter. Using a 1.3 kW PV generator, the sys-tem converts sunlight into electricity that is then stored in a battery bank. A wind turbine supports the system by supplementing the solar energy at night or during months with low irradiance. Since the electric-ity supply is secured around the clock and during all seasons, this makes diesel generators redundant. The reCUBE can be assembled in just a few hours. This new product from KACO has been successfully operating for some time in Erbil in northern Iraq, which is the country’s third largest city.
Victron Energy B.V. from the Netherlands is a well-known supplier of hybrid power solutions. “Our prod-ucts include sine wave inverters, sine wave inverters/chargers, battery chargers, DC/DC converters, trans-fer switches, battery monitors and more,” says Mat-thijs Vader, Product Manager at Victron Energy BV.
Victron Energy provides a wide range of stand-alone inverters for off-grid photovoltaics. A new and unique power system is the Victron Quattro. This en-ables both the mains and a generator, or two gener-
The Solarix PI 1100 from Steca can be connected in parallel and can be opera-ted via a single rotary switch. Photo: Steca
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ators, to be connected at the same time, whereby it was previously not possible to connect two different AC power sources to an invert-er/charger. Using a Quattro makes a separate transfer switch super-fluous. The result: less wiring, easier installation and fewer costs. The Quattros are available with 12V/24V/3,000 VA and with 24V/48V/5,000 VA.
Another new product is the VE SolarSwitch. A common problem among some standard PV systems is that they shut down when there are power outages. Using the Victron SolarSwitch helps to solve this problem. When there is a public grid available, it connects the solar inverter directly to it. If the grid fails, the power from the solar invert-er is redirected to the output of the MultiPlus. This is a true sine wave inverter, which replaces the grid and balances the power mismatch between the load and the solar inverter.
In addition, Victron has developed the Global Remote: a modem that transmits alarms, warnings and system status reports to mobile phones by means of text messages (SMS). It also logs data from Vic-tron battery monitors, Multis, Quattros and inverters to a website via a GPRS connection. This website can be accessed free of charge.
According to FEG mbH from Sömmerda in Thuringia, Germany, the company specialises in developing and installing systems that utilise renewable energy sources. In addition to designing and installing photovoltaic systems, FEG also produces inverters, including its ‘SON-TIME’ series for stand-alone operation.
The US company, Outback Power Systems, is represented in the mar-ket with two series: the FX models (sealed, 2,000/2,500/3,000 VA) and the VFX models (vented, 2,800/3,500/3,600 VA). The AC output voltage is 120 V. The modular system architecture enables the system to expand in accordance with power needs up to 36,000 W. When not being used, the inverter enters a power save mode. OutBack’s inno-vative Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technolo-gy can also control hydro or wind turbine charg-ing sources. A single control monitors the overall system status and control.
Two new developments from SMA Solar Technol-ogy AG include the SI2224 (24 V, 2,200 VA) and the SI2012 (12 V, 2,000 VA). The 12 V ver-sion appeared at the be-ginning of 2009. “With these devices we have completed our series of stand-alone inverters in the lower output range,” says SMA. The new in-verters are lighter and less bulky then their predecessors, which fa-cilitates their handling and installation. As with
XTM model series from Studer Innotec: The ‘Smart Boost’ function enables Xtender devices to increase the output of other AC power sources. Photo: Studer
Energy
Anytime
Anywhere
VICTRON ENERGY BV, DE PAAL 35, 1351 JG ALMERE-HAVEN, THE NETHERLANDS. PHONE *31-36 535 97 00. FAX *31-36 535 97 42. E -MAIL [email protected]. WWW.VICTRONENERGY.COM.
RV0210 Adv Victron 90x260 map.indd 1 17-09-09 10:51
the SI5048, both AC and DC connections are possi-ble. The trend towards developing inverters for off-grid hybrid systems is demonstrated by the Multi-cluster-Boxes from SMA, which enable three-phase systems to be easily assembled with load connec-tions up to 110 kW. Up to 12 Sunny Island 5048 stand-alone inverters can be connected to a box (with a 60 kW continuous output and 100 kW for 1 minute). Together with a PV system and a diesel generator, these can supply power to entire villages or larger-scale commercial operations such as hotels and tour-ist lodges. The extra output with AC-connected hybrid systems ensures that loads are securely supplied with up to 110 kW.
According to its own advertising message, Dutch manufacturer Mastervolt is at home “in the world of shipping, the industrial sector and the specialist ar-ea of mobile power supplies.” “Mastervolt is the worldwide market leader in the marine and mobile segments,” adds General Manager Ulrich Trattmann and presents the Mass Sine 48/2500 with a 230 V output voltage. The inverter can be easily integrated in both existing shore power/on-board systems as well as in systems with various power sources. Com-bined with a generator and the Masterswitch transfer system, it can be deployed as the distribution system for all AC power sources.
Wilhelm Wilming
Further information:Solon SE: www.solon.comRIPEnergy AG: www.ripenergy.chIVT: www.ivt-hirschau.deSteca: www.stecasolar.comStuder Innotec: www.studer-inno.comKACO new energy GmbH: www.kaco-newenergy.deVictron Energy B.V.: www.victronenergy.comFEG mbH: www.fegmbh.deOutback Power Systems: www.outbackpower.comSMA Solar Technology AG: www.sma.deMastervolt: www.mastervolt.com
Botswana, Africa: An entire camp running solely on solar power. This installation with inverters from Victron Energy, designed and installed by On Track Alternative Power, supplies an ultra luxurious 5-star African camp with all the energy it requires. Photo: Victron Energy
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