News

After the parliamentary elections: drive climate protection forward, strengthen industry

Germany voted. The exploratory talks regarding the formation of a new German Federal Government are already ramping up. The demonstrations by the Fridays for Future movement in which more than 600,000 people participated in 470 locations last Friday impressively underlined once more that climate policy must occupy a central role in the negotiations. If the fight against the climate crisis is to be effective, the new Federal Government must not simply settle for “more of the same.” We need faster and far more substantial expansion of renewable energy sources.

How to
Sunny Home Manager 2.0

Automatic Energy Cost Savings: With Solar power and the SMA Sunny Home Manager

The best way of cutting your electricity costs as much as possible is simply to turn on your home appliances when your rooftop PV system is generating electricity. The problem with that is that we are often at work or otherwise not at home in the middle of the day when the PV system is generating the most electricity. This means that we can’t switch our appliances on ourselves. That’s why we manage our home appliances automatically with the SMA Sunny Home Manager 2.0. It switches our home appliances on when the PV system is generating sufficient electricity. Read on to find out how we can use this system to save hundreds of euros on electricity costs every year.

How to
SMA Sunny Design

Why a north-facing system pays off

Whether a pointed gable, tented roof, modern city villa, single-family home or apartment building, it also pays to install PV modules on the north-facing side of buildings. This delivers more energy yields and makes system operators independent of rising electricity prices. With the Sunny Design planning software, you can display up to six module arrays during system planning, allowing you to incorporate more roof surfaces into the design from the outset. We will show you how to do this (including with a carport) for north-facing installations as well, because diffuse light can also result in a good yield. The software allows you to easily design complex systems in a single step.

Solutions
Michael Ploechl, Expert in Operation & Maintenance Solutions

Think Opex*

Storage and PV power plants are system-relevant. The energy transition cannot succeed without them. If a power plant fails, the costs mount up very quickly. Michael Ploechl is the head of the SMA monitoring location in Germany and he and his team ensure that it doesn’t come to that. Despite this responsibility, Ploechl generally remains relaxed. He can afford to. Because at two locations in the U.S. and Germany, expert teams analyze the system performance of power plants worldwide 24/7 in real time. The professionals in Rocklin and Ulm ensure that everything runs smoothly. In our interview, he explains why operating expenditure is more important than capital expenditure and how rabbits occasionally cause him some trouble.

How to
Concevoir son projet avec PVsyst : 3 choses à savoir pour une utilisation optimale du logiciel

Designing your project with PVsyst: Three things to know for optimal use of the software

The design stage of a PV system is crucial to ensure optimal production from the installation and to secure the investment objective. There are several software tools that perform simulations according to the configuration of the installation, its location, orientation and energy requirements, including PVsyst. In this article, Julien Le Bars, Applications and Project Engineer at SMA France, shares his three points for optimal use of the tool (version 7.2.1).

How to
Sunny Design - No fear of shading on PV systems

No fear of shading on PV systems

The Sunny Design planning software has been used to plan millions of PV systems worldwide since 2007. The new release coming out in late April lets you precisely model where shading might be on the modules and shows you where direct irradiation is lost.