SMA Highlights of Intersolar Europe 2018

For three days, all eyes in the international solar industry were on Munich. This year, Intersolar Europe welcomed more than 50,000 visitors. On each of the days, thousands of visitors scrambled to the SMA trade fair booth. There, they learned about the easy integration of storage systems into energy systems, intelligent energy management and digital solutions for the modern energy world. Read here about what was happening at our booth.

Double win

On the first evening of the trade fair, all SMA colleagues celebrated a double win. The Sunny Central Storage battery inverter received the prestigious ees AWARD in the category “Electrical Energy Storage.” It ensures maximum grid stability in large-scale storage applications and also delivers grid-quality solar power to off-grid regions.

The second winner is energy management platform ennexOS. For the first time, it was honored with the smarter E award for solutions and concepts that combine intelligently all of the fields of energy in the heat, warmth and transport sectors with renewable energies, decentralization and digitalization.

Third winner of the #eesEU AWARD is the German success company @SMAsolar with its Sunny Central Storage. The innovative, grid-forming battery inverter is compatible with a wide range of batteries and integrates up to 100% of the renewable energy generated into stand-alone grids. pic.twitter.com/mJySsjq4DT

— ees (@ees_events) 20. Juni 2018

Illuminating energy cube

The “Solar Cubes” are both highly practical and extremely cute. This is just a working titles — the cubes are so new that they do not have a name yet. The prototypes were presented for the first time to the public at Intersolar. The white cubes with colorful streaks of light come from an SMA ideas competition, in which all employees could participate. Depending on which color is lit up, you know whether solar power is being generated, used or stored, making it a real eye-catcher.

SMA and the energy utility MVV are launching a joint solution for direct marketing of solar power. Above: SMA CTO Juergen Reinert (left) and Ralf Kloepfer, MVV Sales Board (right).

Digitalization trend continues

Whether new models for marketing solar power digitally, new digital business models or a digital currency as a means of payment for self-generated solar power, the digitalization of the solar industry is in full swing and SMA is at the center. Just like the new business models that our subsidiary coneva presented to the visitors to the trade fair in Munich, the new offer for direct marketing of energy SMA SPOT was met with a high level of interest. Operators of PV systems can now integrate their system into energy trading at commissioning time from 100 kWp in a simple, cost-effective and future-proof way.

Currency is also becoming digital. A team of employees from SMA, SolarCoin and start-up SolarLux is currently reviewing how to integrate virtual currency Solar Coin into Sunny Portal. The idea behind this is using SolarCoins as payment for one MWh of solar power generated.

SMA partners with #SolarCoin Foundation and @SolarLux_Ltd. This could make SolarCoin available to thousands of solar installation owners in Sunny Portal. #blockchain #Digitalization #IntersolarEU https://t.co/ynuY3Mbuxh ^lb pic.twitter.com/AuA7C9DxaY

— SMA Solar Technology (@SMAsolar) 20. Juni 2018

Whether centralized or decentralized, SMA has the solution

In addition to the new Sunny Highpower PEAK3 with up to 150 kW of output for decentralized PV power plants with 1,500 direct voltage, SMA presented the new Sunny Central 3000-EV in the field of PV power plants. The central inverter enables reductions in system costs of as much as 10% and will continue to run at full performance even at temperatures as high as 35°C thanks to the OptiCool intelligent cooling system.

You can learn even more about SMA’s solutions for large PV power plants from Boris Wolff in this video.

More power for residential and commercial PV systems

SMA Power+ Solution makes it possible to consume more self-generated solar power yourself, to use specific module technology and easily integrated battery storage systems and to manage the entire system intelligently. Nick Morbach explains the advantages that come with using the integrated service SMA Smart Connected at the SMA Intersolar trade fair booth. Click here to watch the video.

Far from the grid

This year, off-grid systems also had a place again at SMA’s trade fair booth. Using a large LED screen, visitors were shown an impressive explanation on how to efficiently generate electric current far from the utility grid in an environmentally friendly manner, giving the example of the Caribbean island St. Eustatius. From the SMA employees on-site, there were many more fascinating reports about the usage sites with regard to electricity supply far from the utility grid. In the video, Volker Wachenfeld explains how to reduce diesel consumption in this kind of systems and even avoid it entirely.

See you next time

Thank you to everyone who visited SMA at the trade fair booth in Munich and got into solar energy. Goodbye until next year and don’t forget: the date is already set. From May 15 -17, all eyes will again be on Munich in 2019. We’re looking forward to it.