Ultra-fast short-term storage for more efficient photovoltaics

21.05.2024

Source: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e. V.

New milestone reached: photovoltaic project starts demonstration phase after successful three-year development.

The project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) on the topic of "Development of a grid-supporting photovoltaic storage system using ultracapacitors", or NetPVStore for short, was launched in 2020.

Under the coordination of the Center for Applied Energy Research e. V. (CAE), an interdisciplinary project team of scientists and engineers from CAE, DHG Engineering, Skeleton Technologies, TH Nürnberg, Sunset Energietechnik and ÜZ Mainfranken is developing a converter-storage unit consisting of photovoltaic modules, short-term storage units and power electronics. The use of ultracapacitors is intended to significantly smooth out power fluctuations in PV systems caused by cloud movement in the range of seconds to minutes and thus provide renewable energy in grid-supporting quality. In addition, energy losses and the demands on the inverter are to be reduced, so that in addition to smoothing the output, energy and economic advantages over existing systems can also be expected.

After a three-year development and optimization phase, during which the design of the system and the control of storage charging were optimized at laboratory level, a 5 kW demonstration system has now been installed and put into operation on the roof of ÜZ Mainfranken. The demonstration phase marks a decisive step in this application-oriented project, as the findings to date are now being tested and validated in practice. The aim is to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the system under real-life conditions.