In the news last Friday, we have seen BBC Radio 4 and BBC online running stories about the Smart Energy Revolution and battery storage.
Nicola Shaw, National Grid UK Executive Director, has spoken about how solar energy and battery backup systems have the potential to help stabilise the National Grid.
SunGift Solar have been playing their part in the Smart Energy Revolution, including working with Japanese electrical giants Sharp, who also featured in the BBC stories last week, installing a number of different energy storage products at the cutting edge Sharp Laboratories in Oxford, where Sharp research and develop new technology, and updating new products as the technology develops.
Sharp are developing battery storage software and controls that allow consumers to utilise their solar and storage to level out peaks and troughs on the grid. Sharp, together with their partner Upside Energy, are planning to field trial the technology next year. The firm says it expects the system to pay its way without subsidy by 2018.
Just before the stories broke, two SunGift specialists, Kevin Ciolino, our Technical Project Manager, and Oliver Grogono, our Lead Commercial System Designer, were at Sharp’s Lab installing the latest additions to the test site and also to discuss the next stages of works to be completed over the next few weeks.
Oliver Grogono commented “Working with Sharp has been a great experience as it is important to us to be working with industry leaders to assist with the advancement in smart energy technology. We know renewable energy is the key to a sustainable future and we welcome any technological advances that allow it to be integrated into a smart grid system.”
Steve Day, Energy Solutions Manager at Sharp Labs, says “SunGift have been a long standing installation partner at our R&D facility in Oxford. We’re excited to working with them again on the next stage of this project as we aim to enter field trials.”
SunGift have been working on renewables plus storage for a number of years and is also trialling the technology at our own premises in Devon. We have recently signed up with energy suppliers Good Energy and Open Utility where we will be able to maximise the financial benefits of storage through improving self-consumption of on-site generated energy, reducing usage at peak charging hours and providing flexible loads to make the most of cheaper electricity when demand is low.
