Energetica India - June 2020

SOLAR POWER CASE STUDY: Yorkshire: Europe’s Largest Unsubsidized Solar-Plus-Storage Project The completion of the project not only opened a new era of unsubsidized and sustainable development of re- newable energy in the UK and even Europe, but also provided an application demonstration of the era of global parity and grid connection. 24 energetica INDIA- June_2020 Project Overview The UK 34.7MW PV plant plus 27.5MW/30MWh large-scale energy storage project was successfully put into operation in winter 2019. It marks the largest unsubsidized solar-plus-stor- age project in Europe as well as the first unsubsidized utility-scale project in the UK. The project is expected to generate enough solar energy for 10,000 house- holds per year. The completion of the project not only opened a new era of unsubsidized and sustainable development of renewable energy in the UK and even Europe, but also provided an application demonstra- tion of the era of global parity and grid connection. Recently, in the UK and even Europe, the gradual cancellation of subsidies for re- newable energy has become a new nor- mal. The profits of PV power plants have been greatly reduced. The integration of PV and energy storage can improve the system efficiency and the power generating capability of PV plants. So- lar-plus-storage solution is becoming the first choice for further unsubsidized projects. “PV + ESS” for Higher Yields Sungrow supplied the total system solu- tion consisting of 1500Vdc PV turnkey station SG3125HV-MV and all-in-one “2.5 MW-1 Hour” ESS (energy storage system) solution for the project, which can keep a reasonable energy transmis- sion amongst the grid, PV, energy stor- age and project users, maximizing ROI of the plant. Given the changeable weather and poor sunshine conditions, the UK poses high requirements for the high DC/AC ratio. Sungrow provides 1500V turnkey medi- um-voltage inverter solution with an opti- mal DC/AC ratio of 1.4 . Compatible with intelligent tracking systems and bi-fa- cial modules, the solution significantly boosts yields by more than 20% . Containerized in a 20-ft container to- gether with the monitoring system and auxiliary power supply, Sungrow’s new high performing PCS (power conversion system) SC2500HV-MV lies in its ability to deliver high efficiency and compati - ble with high voltage battery system to improve yields and reduces O&M costs. Furthermore, the reliable lithium-ion bat- tery system from Sungrow Samsung SDI is housed in a 40-ft container. It proves that standard container design is profitable to transportation and en - ables less footprints. It can shorten the commissioning duration and generate more as early as possible. System Integration Contributes to More Safety The safety of the battery is one of the most important factors to the stable operation of the energy storage sys- tem. Sungrow ESS adopts the four-lev- el management system, including local controller management, battery system management, battery rack management and battery module management, in a bid to prevent situations like overcharge, over-discharge, over-current, over-volt- age and under-voltage. Equipped with intelligent HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and au- tomatic FFS (firefighting system), along with the high-efficiency heat dissipation and thermal insulation design of the bat- tery; the ESS solution can ensure that the battery won’t experience extreme temperatures in harsh conditions, guar- anteeing a safe and reliable system with maximum efficiency. Integrated the monitoring system which secures the data from thousands of sam- pling points, the ESS solution can show the real-time operation status of the bat- tery and prevent it from any potential hazards. Notably, reserving 3 meters’ fire preven - tion space between containers is not