Power & Energy Solutions

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Solar

The battery storage system manufacturer has been named “Top Innovator 2020” Wittenberg/Germany, 22 June 2020 – Tesvolt, the manufacturer of electricity storage systems for trade and industry, was named on Friday  Top Innovator of the Year” in the TOP 100 competition. It secured first place in its size category in this leading innovation contest for German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition to the young company’s rapid growth and agile organisational form, the 31-member jury was also impressed by the innovative technology that underpins Tesvolt storage systems. This was the competition’s 27th instalment. “Germany lives on innovation. From a global perspective, Germany is a highly innovative country. But we must work to ensure that this remains the case and that we constantly reinvent ourselves. The key to these efforts are SMEs, which are the driver of our economy – and therefore the foundation of our prosperity,” says Ranga Yogeshwar, TOP 100 mentor. “Tesvolt has leapt into the ranks of the top innovators for 2020 – and did so with its first entry in the competition.” Scientific selection procedure TOP 100 honours businesses for their successful innovation, examining every stage of the innovation process as well as the climate of innovation and the extent to

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

Jan De Nul Group and Hellenic Cables join forces for the installation and protection of a submarine power cable between the island of Crete and the Peloponnese region of the Greek mainland, developed by ADMIE. Hellenic Cables, through its 100% subsidiary Fulgor SA, will produce the 135.7 km long cable at its Corinth plant. Jan De Nul Group is responsible for the installation of the cable in water depths up to 980 meters using its Cable Laying Vessel Isaac Newton as well as the pre- and post-lay protection works up to 600 meters water depth Wouter Vermeersch, Manager Offshore Cables at Jan De Nul Group: “After the successful execution of the Borkum Riffgrund 2 and Trianel export cable projects back in 2018, we are pleased to continue our good relationship with Hellenic Cables through the award of this challenging interconnection project. The cable route runs over very deep waters and a difficult seabed with extremely steep slopes.” About Jan De Nul Group Design. Build. Connect. Jan De Nul Group shapes water and land. Worldwide. From complex services to the offshore energy and energy transition sector, over large dredging and defence works on the edge of water and land, to challenging civil and environmental works. Well

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

First turbine installed last Saturday Monday, June 22, 2020 — DEME Offshore has installed the first turbine at the SeaMade offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea. With a 487 MW capacity, SeaMade is the largest offshore wind farm in Belgium. Offshore construction of the SeaMade wind farm started in September 2019, with the last foundation installed in January 2020 and in the meantime connected by the subsea cables. DEME’s DP2 offshore installation vessel ‘Apollo’ will now install 58 Siemens Gamesa 8.4 MW turbines on the monopile foundations. ‘Apollo’ loaded the first wind turbine components at the Renewable Energy Base Ostend (REBO), which is used as the marshalling harbour for the pre-assembly of the 58 turbines. From Ostend, ‘Apollo’ will transport the tower elements, nacelles and blades, with a total weight of 1,000 tonnes each, for installation at the SeaMade site which is about 45 km off the Belgian coast. ‘Apollo’ features an 800-tonne, leg-encircling crane and an unobstructed, spacious 2,000 m² deck with a load carrying capacity of 15 t/m². Michael Glavind, Business Unit Director DEME Offshore: “After the successful installation of the foundations, offshore substations and subsea cables, the start of the turbine installation campaign brings us another step closer to the production of

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Exclusive Articles, Solar, Think Tank

Over the last years, some new sensors have been developed, for monitoring photovoltaic plants. This has been possible due to close co-operation, in research and development, between Ingenieurbüro Mencke & Tegtmeyer GmbH (M&T) and Institut für Solarenergieforschung Hameln/ Emmerthal (ISFH). The new PVIS reference irradiance sensor will be available later this year, once the final optimization and accelerated environmental testing is completed. Whilst we now concentrate on this sensor, which conforms to the IEC 61724-1:2017 standard as well as with WPVS (World Photovoltaic Scale), we will present the new BigRef sensor in the next issue of PES Solar. We would like to thank all colleagues, who have made this technique possible.

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Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Solar

Maria Stefanidou, Sales Director at Mounting Systems, gave PES Solar an interesting insight into the importance of racking systems. Just outside of Berlin, this German manufacturer supplies a whole range of products to our industry. The latest is for solar car ports. Read on to find out more … PES: Hi Maria, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to PES. To start us off, would you like to give us a brief overview of Mounting Systems? Maria Stefanidou: Mounting Systems is the only racking system manufacturer in Germany. Our production site is in Rangsdorf, 30 minutes outside Berlin, where we produce a whole range of products for pitched and flat roofs as well as ground mount including solar carports. Manufacturing products in-house means we are in full control of the system and the product: from the raw material all the way to the delivery to the customer. Being a large manufacturer, we also make parts for many other brands all over the world, giving us a unique way into many markets. We are selling our products with our Mounting Systems brand, as well as private label. PES: We know that sustainable policies are becoming more of a requirement for businesses and cities want

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Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Solar

This year marks APsystems’ 10th anniversary. While the situation worldwide is facing unexpected challenges on many fronts during this very particular year 2020 with the Coronavirus pandemic, Dr Zhi Min Ling, co-founder and chairman of APsystems, shares his views on his entrepreneurial story with Maxime Boiron, Senior Director of Marketing EMEA & Australia, also at APsystems. From its very beginning, when the economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis were still strongly present, to where APsystems is today, having become the No.1 multi-module microinverter supplier in the world. It is as if challenging uncertainty could also be a key in building long-lasting opportunities. Maxime Boiron: 2020 is the year of APsystems celebrating its 1st decade, how does it make you feel? Zhi Min Ling: Fortunate, honored and grateful. It is a major milestone for the company, especially in this very fast-changing inverter industry which is at the crossroads of high-tech microelectronics, energy and environmentally-friendly building sectors. Staying alive is one thing, but growing profitably when you need to heavily invest in R&D on one side, while keeping enough agility to adapt to an ever-changing emerging market on the other side, is another challenge. The fact that we have been growing for

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Corporate Focus, Exclusive Articles, Solar

From its beginning, Studer has been in the forefront of battery-based systems. Despite the constant evolution of the sector, and the arrival of new competitors, Studer has kept a leading position. All manufacturing is carried out in Switzerland, to the highest quality standards. Serge Remy, Head of Sales, gave PES a look back of over 30 years of history and bringing us right up to the present day. The pioneer years Here is the story of a company which started small, in a tiny country called Switzerland. The man who founded this company in 1987, Roland Studer, had a great idea: to offer high value power electronics to a brand-new market, which then was still in its youth and to offer it beyond the frontier of Switzerland. Of course, it was solar photovoltaic. The first solar charge controller 200Wp with analog display is born Only one year after, the first device was improved and got up to to 300Wp, incorporating a digital display.

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Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Solar

Over 1.6 billion connectors from Stäubli’s solar range have provided reliable connections all over the world since 1996. This represents a PV output of over 300 GW, which is almost impossible to believe. Matthias Mack, Director Global Alternative Energies and member of the Management Board at Stäubli, came to talk to PES about Stäubli Electrical Connectors, its company values and the future direction. PES: Welcome back to PES Solar. We have had the pleasure of several interviews with your company, and have followed your progress with great interest. As always, we have many new readers, for their benefit could you give us a brief history of Stäubli? Matthias Mack: We are part of the Swiss family-owned Stäubli Group, a global mechatronics solution provider with three dedicated activities: Connectors, both fluid and electrical, Robotics and Textile, founded in 1892. Stäubli Electrical Connectors, formerly Multi-Contact, is an experienced specialist and market leader in electrical connectors for photovoltaic solutions. We offer reliable, long-lasting quality components and services that help to reduce operational and maintenance cost. Safe and efficient products along the whole electrical PV supply chain, from roof top installations to power optimizers and energy storage, provide reliability and zero maintenance to increase the bankability

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Exclusive Articles, Solar, Talking Point

The craze for solar panels begins in the 1980s. Following the oil shocks, electricity produced by ‘alternative’ sources appears to be an effective long-term solution. The first MW of production at the world level is reached in 1999. The United States, a pioneer in the field to the point of owning 21% of the total photovoltaic surface area in 1983, is quickly caught up by Germany, and today by China, which now produces 29.7% of the world’s solar energy (figures from 2017). A directly correlated issue to the rising number of solar panels is their long-term maintenance in order to ensure ongoing efficiency. Therefore, the way to keep them clean. At the time of the photovoltaic ‘boom’, knowledge about the maintenance of solar panels is very limited. Until 2010, the most widespread opinion is that solar panels do not need to be cleaned because ‘wind and rain water clean them’. This argument by solar panel producers is commonly accepted, although experiences with other objects left outside over a period of time seem to prove it wrong. For example, a car parked outside will show traces of dirt despite being subject to rain and wind. After several years of using solar

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Ask the Experts, Exclusive Articles, Solar

PES met up with Brigitte Beck, CEO at Solare Datensysteme GmbH. Their new portal, developed over 2 years, with input from customers, provides plant operators with an even faster and deeper fault analysis, saving considerable time and expenditure. They are at the cutting edge of digitalisation and that is where they aim to stay. ‘The interaction of our new, powerful hardware with the flexible software leaves nothing to be desired for users.’ PES: Hello Brigitte, it is my pleasure to welcome you to PES Solar. It’s been a while since we talked to someone from Solar-LogTM and it’s great to have the opportunity to get informed. The company has been part of the BKW Group, one of the largest energy service providers in Switzerland, for quite some time now and there was a change in the management of the company last year. Would you first like to give our readers a brief overview of the company? Brigitte Beck: Solare Datensysteme GmbH (SDS) has been very successfully active in the global market for almost 15 years with its well-known Solar-LogTM brand. Since 2015, SDS has been part of the listed energy group BKW AG in Switzerland. We have developed from purely providing PV

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