Commercial storage: The thing pays off

07/26/2018 | Print view

Every detail is important. - © HS — © HS

Every detail is important.

To plan and build a complex storage system for solar self-supply one has to have some knowledge and experience. Because the investment needs to be secure.

Novatech has three decades of experience under their belt. That was a key reason why the municipal utilities of Stuttgart awarded the contract to them. When Novatech was originally founded by nine engineers, their focus was on bio gas technology.

In 1993, they built their first PV installation, back then with two kilowatts. “At the time, the price per kilowatt was about 15,000 German Marks,” Zanzinger recalls. “The inverter was made by Siemens and for the entire service life of the installation, it broke down only once.”

Three decades of experience

Until 2005, the company had 20 staff, but then the PV segment underwent its massive boom. During the best year, 50 people went out as part of seven assembly teams just for PV. Novatech went international with its bio gas department, supplying the core market in Germany with smaller installations up to 100 kilowatts for agricultural applications. In Canada, Italy or France it tends to be large-scale installations up to 500 kilowatts.

Customers’ expectations are growing

The crisis in photovoltaics was also challenging for Novatech, and that called for making certain adjustments. To this day, they have produced about 150 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaics; 20 megawatts in 2017 alone. CEO Zanzinger plans to also reach that margin for 2018. Furthermore, Novatech wants to continue to bid for tenders for greenfield installations.

But their focus is clearly on self-consumption, chiefly for commercial customers. The 39 kilowatt hours storage unit in Stuttgart has so far been the largest storage project for the team. “Many solar customers are already creating the space for commercial-scale storage,” he confirms, “but they choose to wait as battery prices are still relatively high.”

A big installing company

Nowadays, Novatech once again has 80 staff. “The projects have become massively more sophisticated, as you can clearly see in the Gentner project,” Zanzinger sums up. “It is all about integrating the battery systems into a wider context of self-consumption. This means that price is no longer the the only determining factor, as it used to be. Sales pitches are different now – that can be quite liberating.”

Zanzinger, an economist by training, joined the company in 2005, after working for Würth and SAP before. In 2012, he became CEO. Since then, Novatech’s involvement in PV has been limited to Germany, “and that is not going to change. We still have a lot of work to do here.” (HS)

120,000 euros net investment

Gentner Publishing has made a net investment of 120,000 euros into its solar installation in Stuttgart: the storage system, the charge points and the electric connectors. It goes without saying, though, that the energy upgrade of the building involved even greater costs.

During the summer, the solar power will also be used for cooling the offices, i.e. the lithium battery will be augmented by a system of thermal storage. At a conservative calculation, the entire solar technology will have paid itself off within ten years. It now remains to be seen how this installation will fare over the coming years. We will keep you posted. (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

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Commercial storage: The thing pays off