SMA’s latest inverter that incorporates a lithium ion battery has won an award at Intersolar Europe 2013 in Munich.
Sunny Boy Smart Energy is the first wall mounted solar inverter with an integrated battery to be mass produced.
SMA says it can increase the self-consumption of solar power systems by a household by up to half. The 2 kW capacity stored by the Sunny Boy Smart Energy’s battery is sufficient to supply a four-person household with about three hours of power of an evening, or at other times during adverse weather conditions.
SMA states the Sunny Boy Smart Energy is as easy to install as a standard inverter, with no extra planning required.
The LG Chem produced integrated lithium-ion battery is designed for a service life of 10 years and a depth of discharge of 90%.
The companion to the Sunny Boy Smart Energy inverter is the Sunny Home Manager, which offers an overview of all energy production and consumption, controls loads automatically and integrates the Sunny Boy Smart Energy battery as an intermediate storage unit.
Acknowledged at the Intersolar Awards as the best product in the Photovoltaics category, this is the third occasion SMA has received Intersolar recognition.
“With this award, SMA again demonstrates its technological leadership and emphasizes the significance of intelligent system technology in the decentralized, renewable energy supply of the future,” says part a statement from the company.
The Sunny Boy Smart Energy will be available in Germany in October 2013. At this point in time, we’re unclear when it will be available in Australia.
As we’ve mentioned in the past; if Big Energy is concerned about the impact of solar on profits now, it’s going to be a lot worse if solar households sick of being treated as second class citizens by energy companies start cutting ties with the mains grid altogether in droves as residential battery storage systems evolve and become more affordable.
But it doesn’t have to be an “us vs. them” scenario – there are opportunities for Big Energy to work more closely with solar households; to their benefit, the benefit of all electricity users and Australia’s clean energy future.
