Li-ion Supplier Saft Partners with Apollo Solar on US DOE Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) Project

3 September 2009

Saft is supplying a lithium-ion battery system to provide energy storage for one of the Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) projects funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Saft is working in collaboration with Apollo Solar, a company specializing in the design and manufacture of power electronics for solar energy systems, which has just been awarded a contract for the second design phase of SEGIS to deliver a working prototype of a less expensive, more efficient Smart Grid inverter.

The SEGIS concept. Click to enlarge.

The objective of the SEGIS program, managed by Sandia National Laboratories, is to develop high-performance products that will allow photovoltaics to become a more integral part of household and commercial Smart-Energy systems.

Apollo Solar has been selected by the DOE to design and develop a cost competitive and more efficient Smart Grid inverter to enhance the value of solar electric systems to home and business users. The design will incorporate energy storage and two-way communications between solar electrical systems and utilities.

The role of the Saft Li-ion battery system, which will be sized at around 10 kWh, will be to provide efficient energy storage that will enable the solar energy to be effectively ‘time shifted’ to make it available for home consumption during periods of peak demand, or for injection into the grid when needed either for support or when it will generate the most economic value.

Saft is already demonstrating this approach in SOL-ION, a Franco-German project dedicated to the development of a new concept in energy conversion and storage for grid connected photovoltaic (PV) systems in Europe. (Earlier post.)

The next phase of SEGIS will focus on the field demonstration, deployment, and commercialization of the products being developed.

Resources

• Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems concept paper (2007)