A Battery Charger to Optimise Solar Energy Use

Goal

To develop and market a battery charger which is easily adaptable to photovoltaic panels and offers better performance than current standards

Partners

Studer Innotec, HES-SO Valais (ISI), The Ark Foundation

With the rise in new renewable energies – and their intermittent production —, energy storage is becoming increasingly important for the safety of electrical  supply. The HES-SO Valais Industrial System Institute has been working for many years on the performance of high-tension batteries and chargers connected to photovoltaic panels. 
SME Studer Innotec, a major global player in solar inverter batch production, is also located in the Valais region. It wishes to vary its offer with a new generation of battery chargers connected to solar panels. Both these partners have joined forces around The Ark Foundation, resulting in two projects and practical results.

Project Contents

The average power of autonomous photovoltaic systems has increased a lot in recent years. The  development of solar installations has made serial battery chargers less efficient, and even not efficient at all sometimes. Indeed, energy transformation and storage technologies aren’t adapted to the increase in solar panels and powers. Furthermore, the cabling required for panel connexions is very complex.

In 2011, as part of a The Ark Energy project, HES-SO Valais managed to develop a demonstrator for a battery charger, with a performance exceeding 97%. This was a great achievement, as results obtained so far never exceeded 93%, which wasn’t enough to market the product. Performance is indeed a key element in the purchase decision, thus constituting a major competitive advantage.

Based on these elements, a new The Ark project was initiated in 2012, aiming to industrialise this innovative concept, in collaboration with Studer Innotec. The idea was to simplify the cabling without decreasing performance and making the charger marketable.

Practical Results

An initial series of battery chargers was developed and will be tested on clients’ premises. If everything goes according to plan, the chargers will be marketed in late 2013. The new equipment, the performance of which exceeds 97%, reduces cabling costs (4 times less copper, cables up to 10 times thinner) and halves the setup time. It is therefore possible to carry out this setup with less qualified staff. There will also be an increase in energy efficiency thanks to the reduction of tension transformation losses.
As for the Valais region’s economy, this project provides Studer Innotec with good prospects, allowing it to market an innovative product and continue its development.

For more information, watch our video