Electrical energy generated by Slovian restaurant Trojane’s solar power system will used to deliver up to 32kWh to the eatery via vanadium batteries supplied by Californian company Imergy.
Two of the company’s ESP4 batteries are being used in a project to evaluate how Energy Storage Systems incorporating vanadium-based flow batteries can manage the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources.
The batteries will be integrated with the restaurant’s existing 49kW solar PV system, a 30kW combined heat and power (CHP) system and an electric-vehicle (EV) charging station.
The project is part of the European AlpStore program to observe how flow batteries can manage multiple applications, such as renewable energy system integration, peak demand reduction, backup power and EV charging.
Findings from the energy storage project will be used to evaluate the possibility of a long-term energy storage strategy for Europe’s Alpine regions.
Flow-batteries are well-suited for solar firming and other renewable integration applications like these, as they can be charged and recharged an infinite number of times with little to no degradation in performance, claimed an Imergy spokesman.
The project is being sponsored by Slovenian utility Elektro Ljubljana, which will evaluate the project during a two-year period, and is supported by Slovenia’s Business Support Centre Kranj.