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.
Also part of the Enphase Energy Storage suite of products is Envoy – a small electronic device Enphase describes as the “brains of the system”. It delivers microinverter firmware updates, gathers performance data and allows for remote troubleshooting. Via the Enlighten software, system owners can monitor performance from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Enphase Energy Storage is another example of solar and related technologies joining the “Internet of Things” (IoT).
Australian solar and storage provider Energy Matters is currently offering $1,000 off 4kW+ solar power systems featuring Enphase microinverters and Envoy, plus an additional $500 off if two or more Enphase AC Batteries are included as part of the installation.
In other recent news from Enphase, the company announced in late November it was a winner of a Smart Solar Award UK 2016. Enphase’s home energy solution product took out the Smart Solar Technology Innovation category.
“This solution represents one of the most compelling and technologically advanced residential energy solutions in the world today, offering maximum energy savings for homeowners,” said Peter van Berkel, general manager of Enphase Europe, Middle East and Africa.
