Commercial storage: The icing on the cake

07/25/2018 | Print view

The dream team installing six battery packs. - © HS — © HS

The dream team installing six battery packs.

The southern front of the office building of Gentner publishers in Stuttgart has got a solar cover. The installation was planned and installed by the municipal utility and the company Novatech.

This new installation for self-generation in western Stuttgart was not a solar project as such, but part of an energy upgrade of the existing building, which has two parts: the original building dating back to before the second world war and an office annex built later.

The architect Erol Munding was at the hub of the wheel and harmonised his work with Stefan Ronzani of the municipal utility. “The architect coordinated the various trades at the building site,” Bernd Zanzinger, CEO of Novatech, says. First the windows were replaced, then the façade had to be straightened out by a specialist plasterer to prepare it for attaching the insulation.

Margins were quite tight

Sometimes, margins ended up being quite tight – and that applies to the schedule as much as to the scaffolding. For the solar façade it was necessary to set the anchor points for the solar panels in the building structure even before the insulation could be applied. Just like in-roof systems, façade-mounted arrays are never easy, always requiring the modification of some detail or other.

A substructure by Schletter

Novatech adapted a substructure by Schletter to the circumstances at the site and had it assembled according to their specifications. “There were some planning challenges,” Zanzinger confirms. “But we were able to solve them because everyone involved was constantly in touch with each other. It is important to work it all out so that nobody gets in anybody’s way.”

Hampered by a secure firewall

In his view, installing the storage system was almost an everyday occurrence. Andreas Lipphardt, storage expert at IBC Solar, came especially from Bad Staffelstein to lend a helping hand to Novatech’s technician Philipp Relius. Initially, one of SMA’s Sunny Homes had a fault and needed to be replaced. Then, integrating the inverters into Gentner’s IT turned out to be tricky because it was behind a secure firewall. “The SMA inverters usually communicate unencrypted,” Zanzinger explains. “The company network, however, was very well secured, so it first needed to be unlocked.”

To solve that problem, they set up an Internet router just for the inverters and connected that as a sub-network. That was a success and now the installation is integrated into SMA’s monitoring. Further, Novatech takes care of the professional supervision and the maintenance. “The installation turned out really nice,” Bernd Zanzinger judges. “The building has undergone a total transformation. For us, complex projects like this one are the icing on the cake.” (HS)

What was new at the Intersolar 2018 in Munich? Watch our expert’s movies here:
http://www.pveurope.eu/Videos/pv-Guided-Tours-videos-2018

Stay informed, get our newsletter twice a week.

Read more on this project:

Commercial storage: Solar energy for a publisher

Read more about solar modules.