French battery maker Saft (Euronext: Saft), announced that it will supply lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) photovoltaic (PV) storage pilot
program at Anatolia III, a high penetration PV community within SMUD’s service territory.
This year, SMUD was awarded $4.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct
a two-year pilot project to examine the value of distributed PV coupled with energy storage in 15
homes and three sites on SMUD’s distribution system within the community. The project will allow
assessment of the PV system, energy storage capability and determine how well the storage
systems perform during periods of peak demand.
Through this pilot, SMUD expects to gain
insight about the technical and economic feasibility of using distributed storage to enable greater use of solar-generated power.
Blake Frye, VP sales, Energy Storage for Saft
North America, said the company is excited about the potential for a large-scale deployment in the future.
The role of the battery system is to provide efficient energy storage so solar power can be time
shifted to support SMUD’s “super-peak” from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., particularly when PV output drops
off after 5 p.m.
Li-ion is the only technology that meets the project’s need for 20-year battery life in
a range of demanding environmental conditions, Saft said.
Saft’s batteries will be integrated into a 5-kW renewable energy
storage device, made by Silent Power, to store the excess energy generated by a homeowner’s
solar power installation.
The $5.9 million project is leveraging SMUD’s SolarSmart Homes? program, which is a key
element of the Anatolia III Community. The SolarSmart Homes? program seeks to partner with
new home developers to provide home owners energy-efficient homes equipped with rooftop
PV systems.
Other partners in the storage pilot project include GridPoint, National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL), Navigant Consulting, Silent Power, SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) and VPT Energy
Systems.
Earlier this month Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (6764.TO) announced that it will begin selling similar solar and energy storage systems in Europe this year.
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