New technologies
ABB, the solar industry’s leading power and automation company, is unveiling new solar technologies at the Solar Power International conference and exhibition this week to support the solar energy in the United States, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing solar markets.
ABB’s comprehensive offering covers everything in the value chain from design, conversion, collection, grid connection and optimization of solar installations of all sizes – literally ‘from the sun to the socket.’ Through technological innovation, ABB has played a critical role in expanding the use and efficiency of utility-scale solar energy around the globe. Building on years of leadership in the U.S. solar market, ABB is focusing on expanding its presence and share in the residential,
ABB is featuring new technologies at SPI that will help drive solar industry growth in the U.S.:
· Solar Tap™ – UNO 2.0/3.0 Inverters with SolarTap™ Functionality – The new UNO2.0/3.0 residential inverter with ABB SolarTap™ functionality delivers emergency backup power in the event of a blackout. This transformerless, single-phase inverter offers a unique, stand-alone AC outlet able to power up to 1.5kW on a standard 120V outlet. This new family of inverters will be available in the first half of 2016.
· TRIO 50kW Inverters – The new ABB TRIO-50, string inverter is re-engineering distributed architecture. The three-phase string inverter can be installed in any location or virtually in any orientation providing shorter time to market for utility scale designs. It has a landscape modular design to guarantee maximum flexibility, ease of installation and maintenance. This inverter is ideal for large commercial and utility plant sizes up to 30MW.
· Symphony® Plus for Solar – Continuing with the momentum in the solar sector, ABB globally unveils their latest automation and SCADA solution. Symphony® Plus for Solar, a versatile and scalable automation solution, is designed for monitoring and control of PV power plants. The solution spans from plant automation including panel position control, plant diagnostics and power management, up to enterprise SCADA to enabling remote operations and management of PV plants.
· Rapid Shutdown Devices for String Inverters – A low-cost, NEC 2014 compliant accessory that simplifies the code compliance of residential solar. Shutdown occurs at the rooftop box when utility power is lost or the PV system’s AC disconnect switch is opened.
· WiFi Logger Card – ABB is introducing its new VSN300 WiFi Logger Card for PV system management, monitoring and control. The Wifi Logger Card has an advanced expansion board designed for ABB’s UNO and TRIO string inverter product lines, and will benefit both residential and commercial installers with an easy-to-install, cost-efficient card.
“Solar energy use continues to accelerate rapidly worldwide, and that is certainly true in the U.S. and North America,” said Alex Levran, Group Senior Vice President for Solar, ABB. “ABB continues to benefit from this accelerated growth and maturity in solar – driven by a shift in the global energy mix toward renewables, and by the strength of our comprehensive offering and global footprint.”
ABB provides the most comprehensive portfolio of products, systems, solutions and services along the solar PV value chain that enable the generation, transmission and distribution of solar power for grid-connected and microgrid applications. ABB’s offering includes inverters, low-voltage products, monitoring and control systems, grid connection, stabilization and integration products, as well as complete electrical balance of plant solutions. ABB also offers a wide range of support and maintenance services, including remote operations and diagnostics, helping ensure solar installations deliver optimal performance.
Support for India
ABB has also won orders worth around $18 million to provide plant electrification, automation and substation solutions for solar power plants being built as part of India’s strong push for solar energy and renewables. Spread across the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, these projects will connect more than 850 megawatts (MW) of solar energy to the grid and will be among the biggest solar projects worldwide.
The most significant of these projects, placed by the Adani Group, a diversified Indian multinational, is the 648 MW solar plant in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu. ABB will provide a turnkey solution encompassing the design, supply, installation and commissioning of the power plant electrification and automation systems, the pooling stations and multiple substations. This includes two 230 kilovolt (kV) and three 110 kV substations to connect the electricity generated to the local grid.
ABB’s Symphony Plus control technology will serve as the ‘unified automation platform’ for the plant including the electrical systems, the solar inverters and state-of-the art software for plant performance monitoring, maximizing operational efficiency and ensuring grid compliance. The IEC 61850 based automation system will facilitate local and remote monitoring and control of the plant and substation assets and is another example of ABB technologies enabling the Internet of Things, Services and People.
“ABB has supported India’s power infrastructure development through the decades and we are pleased to facilitate the country’s push for solar energy, where we have already made a significant contribution” said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s Power Systems division. “This project exemplifies our power and automation system integration capabilities and reinforces our commitment to renewable energy, a key component ABB’s Next Level strategy”
India is endowed with a vast solar energy potential and with approximately 300 clear, sunny days in a year, the theoretical solar power reception, on its land area alone, is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. Even assuming a PV module efficiency of as low as 10 percent, this would still be a thousand times greater than the domestic electricity demand projected for 2015.
But with an installed grid connected solar power capacity of around 4.1 GW (almost all of which has been added in the last four years) solar power still constitutes only 1.45 percent of its total installed power generation capacity of around 276GW. India expects to install an additional 10GW by 2017 and earlier this year the government announced an ambitious goal to have 100 GW of solar power installed in the country by 2022, translating into an investment target of around US$100 billion.
ABB has delivered several turnkey solar projects in India and earlier this year became the first company in the country to deliver solar inverters with a cumulative capacity of two gigawatts.
