A high level tank at Rohrdorf/Meßkirch in the Swabian Alps, is used to supply drinking water to surrounding communities. The tank itself is located in an outside section and thus not connected to the public grid. To control the water distribution and to secure the opereation of the system, a continuous and autonomous power supply of 24 V DC over the year is an indispensable requirement.

To cope with this requirement, 10 solar modules, each 180Wp/24V, have been mounted on the roof of the service building, totalling 1.8 kWp, and supplemented by one wind turbine, Ampair 600/24V, with charge controller. For the energy storage, a battery bank consisting of 4 Gel batteries with a total of 460 Ah at 24 V has been used. For easy and quick installation at site, all electronics have been pre-wired on an installation board and tested before dispatch. Thus only the cabeling of the battery bank, the wind turbine and the solar modules had to be performed in situ.

The property located in an industrial area of Freiburg incorporates a residential building with a larger roof area directed to the southeast and a façade directed to the southwest. Thus there are excellent conditions to consider a solar power supply for the residents and it was the firm wish of the owner to exploit this existing "Sun" potential by using the latest technology in this field. On the one hand, there should be a stand-alone power supply as often as possible, on the other hand, selling of solar energy to the puplic grid and purchasing energy from the grid should be guaranteed as well. To achieve this aim, SMART was assigned with the planning, delivery and installation of a SMA Sunny Backup power supply system.

On the tiled roof and at one façade of the building, PV generators, consisting of 30 x 200Wp solar modules with a total of 6 kWp, have been installed. The backup system itself has been equipped with two Sunny Boy PV string inverters (1xSB 1200 + 1xSB 5000 TL-20) and three Sunny Backup 5000 bi-directional battery inverters including automatic switching device and battery connection box. The battery bank, 800 Ah/48 V, consists of twenty-four 2 Volts OPZS tubular plate battery cells equipped with recombination stubs.

Isolated as well as feed - in operation is designed in three phase performance with a system capacity of 15 kW continuous power and a surge power of 25 kW. The power supply system is mainly intended for own needs. Feed-in the grid (mainly during summer time) ) and purchasing power from the grid (during winter time and transition periods) are effected automatically, depending on the seasonal circumstances and the resident's actual energy demand.

The container platforms are built on the continental shelf in front of the Baltic Sea coast nearby Greifswald. Main purpose of the platforms are to analyse the sea water.

The platform is unattended and therefore designed for a fully automatic and autarkic power supply (230VAC/50Hz und 24V DC) to secure the transfer of the measured data through all over the year. Power is mainly used for electronic measurement facilities, some pumps and valves, navigation lighting as well as for a laptop with telemetric accessory for remote monitoring of measured data and operation of power system.

To secure the power supply, we have considered a two stage modular concept for the charging components. The basic installation consists of 1x wind generator Ampair 600 and4x Solara SM500S 125 Wp solar modules. In case charging current to the battery bank (4x SBG 12-230 in total 230 Ah/48 V) is not sufficient, the system may be extended by a further wind generator and addtional four solar modules. For emergency backup power a gas generator with automatic start facility is on standby. The strong>230 V/50Hz AC power comes from Studer XPC Inverter. The DC power supply (24V DC) is performed by 48/24 DC-DC converter.

For easy and quick installation at site, all electronics have been pre-wired and tested in our laboratory before dispatch. Thus only the cabeling of the battery bank, the wind turbine and the solar modules had to be performed in situ.

SMA's Sunny Backup System acts as a standard grid-connected PV system, when connected to the public grid. In case of a grid failure the system switches automatically to isolated autonomous power supply. In this operational mode, the PV generators feed into the island grid and charge the batteries via the Sunny Backup battery inverters and may maintain an autonomous power supply for a longer time. The advantages of the Sunny Backup over a simple stand-alone power supply system lie in its dual mode ability. On the one hand the generated PV power can be sold to the public grid, on the other hand, in case of a grid failure, the power supply can be secured with a high rate of system autonomy. This was one of the reasons for the owner of the Tatra Hotel to decide for a Sunny Backup installation.

On the flat roof of the hotel, a PV generator array, consisting of 60 solar modules totalling 10,8 kW peak, has been installed. Furthermore the system is equipped with 3 x Sunny Boy 3300 PV-string inverters, 3 x Sunny Backup 5000 bi-directional battery inverters, a battery connection box and an automatic switching device (ASBox). The battery bank is maintenance free, consisting of 24 x tubular plate gel batteries with a total of 800Ah at 48 V. The Sunny Backup power supply is performed as a three phase system with a capacity of 15 kW continuous power and a surge power of 25 kW. Thus - during a power cut- the system can supply the hotel's most important facilities like corridor lighting, offices and elevators.

Website of Hotel: http://www.tatrahotel.com/

In a remote farmhouse near Ballydehob/Ireland we had already installed in 2008 a PV stand-alone power supply system consisting of a Smart SWHBG 4000. As the Solargenerator with 1360 Wp in total can only guarantee a full power supply during summer time, the customer has decided to retrofit the power system with a Ropatec Windrotor, WR 010, thus to minimize fuel generator operation during winter time and transition periods. The 75 kg heavy rotor generator operates independently from wind directions and is mounted on a 4 m high steel mast, generating up to 1kW/48V DC.

For more Information about Ropatec Windrotor: http://www.smart-powersystems.com/95_de.html

The stand-alone power supply system for the Finca, located nearby Valencia, has been designed for a 100% autonomous supply over the year. It is equipped with a 3,28 kW peak PV generator and a battery bank of 690 Ah at 48V. The installed inverter has a capacity of 3,5 kW cont. power and is sufficient for the power supply of all electrical household appliances and the pump for the swimming pool. For emergency and backup supply, a petrol generator is on stand-by.

To facilitate the installation, all electrical components had been pre-wired and pre-mounted on a board (left picture). Furthermore by using a special string box with standard connectors for the solar modules, an error-free installation of the modules had been guaranteed.

The stand-alone power system is consisting of a 1kW wind turbine (Whisper 200) mounted on a 22m high tower, a solar generator of three BP4175 modules totalling 525Wp as well as of a Smart Battery Generator SWHBG 2000, 24V DC/ 230V AC/50Hz, with 2kW continuous power output and a battery bank of 400Ah/24V in total.

The system supplies a crop elevator platform, located in the Departement Oise, in the midst of the largest crop producing area of France. Besides the indoor and outdoor lighting and appliances, the main consumers for the commercial operation of the platform are weighing machines, cooling aggregates and computers.

This cottage is located in the region of Mount Hirzer at an altitude of 1.800 metre. It is mainly used on weekends. In order to guarantee the power supply for various electrical appliances, our customer decided to purchase one of our plug-n-play package solutions.

The set comprises one inverter Studer AJ1300S with an integrated solar charge regulator, 2 solar generators KC85CX-2P with an output of 170 Wp and in extra a battery set consisting of 2 solar batteries with 150 Ah/12 V.