When choosing the best battery option for solar and storage in Commercial and Industrial solutions, there are a few important factors to consider. Let’s evaluate each in detail:

Energy Capacity

Energy capacity refers to the total amount of energy that a battery can store and is measured in ampere-hours or watt-hours (Wh). The design of the modern battery system is scalable. The size of the storage system can start from few kilowatt hours and can go up to hundreds of megawatt hours keeping a consistent design. While a battery with a high capacity and a low power rating would deliver a low amount of electricity for a long time, a battery with low capacity and a high-power rating would be able to bear the entire load, but only for a few hours.

Depth of Discharge (DoD)

The depth of discharge (DoD) of a battery refers to the amount of a battery’s capacity that has been used. It is denoted with a percentage value of the total capacity. Owing to the chemical composition of the battery, the life of the storage system heavily depends on the maximum DOD level the battery is discharged repeatedly. In simpler words, a higher Depth of Discharge means that more of battery’s capacity can be utilized by the consumer. Most battery manufacturers specify a maximum Depth of Discharge for optimal performance of batteries.

Lifespan

Lifespan refers to the number of years a battery can be used effectively, and can vary depending on a number of factors. Solar applications generally require one charge-discharge cycle of the battery per calendar day. A lead Acid battery designed for solar applications can provide around 1000 cycles which can roughly last for 2.7 years While Lithium-ion batteries can provide 3000 – 10,000 cycles, depending on the manufacturer, and can last up to 10 – 30 years.

While all these factors depict the performance of the battery, for a complete picture, it is important to consider other factors as well, such as the C-rating, manufacturer reputation and warranty before you invest in a battery system.

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The risk is real during Covid!

Reon while doing its upmost to keep all its’ sites operational wherever it’s practical to do so, has published guidance to ensure the safety of its’ workers on site. The guideline ensures that the Government recommendations such as those around social distance, good hygiene, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and more are applied across all project sites.

Guidelines for Workers on-site

Consideration should be given to the follows:

Minimum workforce for effective operations

Planning for the minimum number of people required on site is necessary to operate it safely and effectively. It is also necessary to remind people not to attend if they have any Covid-19 related symptoms.

Alongside, customer/contractor site visits are limited while encouraging remote connection has helped manage the risks.

Social Distancing at Work

Using one-way flow on walkways and at entry and exit points is used to help maintain enough distance. Furthermore, staggered start and end times, reduced job and equipment rotation and minimized vehicle sharing has further helped reduce the risk.

Regular cleaning of common contact surfaces

Ensuring frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment between use, providing additional hand washing facilities at regular intervals, and restricting numbers using toilet facilities at one time has helped in maintaining distance between workers. Workers are also encouraged to bring packed meals.

Mandatory use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Providing all gears such as face masks, gloves to minimize the spread of vapors. All PPEs are subject to a single session and must be disposed off appropriately.

Inbound and Outbound Goods

Revising pick-up and drop off collection points; procedures, signage and markings; minimizing unnecessary contact at gate house security, yard and warehouses and having single workers load or unload vehicles wherever possible.

Mobilization

Submitting contractor health declaration form is mandatory prior to mobilization. Contractors are also required to arrange dedicated transport for their staff and workers from their homes to project sites. Furthermore, availability of hand sanitizers is compulsory in all contractor based vehicles.

The aforementioned guidelines will continue to evolve in line with the Government regulations. Reon ensures ongoing training and information access to all employees deployed at site to safeguard the Team’s health, and welfare.

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The unexpected pandemic with its’ devastating consequences for communities and economies has upended plans and tested assumptions. While we are yet to see how the post Covid world shapes, a holistic response is needed for viewing energy, society, economy and the environment. By making clean energy transition an integral part of the public policy decisions and investment plans, especially the economic recovery packages, the government can achieve a step towards a sustainable development vision and the future.

While we did see a drop in carbon emissions globally due to a drop in economic activity, this is a short-term blip and could be followed by a rebound in emission growth post economic ramp up. Hence, making it far more essential to address energy transition in the economic bail out packages.

Key outcomes of the Clean Energy Transition

The case for renewable energy as against other traditional fuels is stronger than ever before due to the falling costs of solar photovoltaic, wind, battery technologies and Electric Vehicles(EV). The Government can provide contracts or guarantees to encourage private investors to invest into renewable sources as the volatile market conditions and Covid may distract the business leaders in the short-term.

Energy transition investments if executed well will not only create jobs and lead energy’s digital transformation in the 2021-2022 recovery phase but also would make energy affordable for the most vulnerable segments of the region. As innovation, growth and jobs shifts towards these new energy technologies, traditional power from fossil fuel sources will more rapidly become a less favorable source.

Along with costs decline in renewable energy generation and EV, insertion of cheaper renewable electricity and innovation in sectors such as steel and cement can lead to increased production of these important global materials in an efficient manner.

It’s time for energy efficiency

This calls for a coordinated effort by the public and private sectors to work on a unified plan that targets lowering carbon-intensive spending. Needless to say, if a virus could bring our economy to a standstill, we cannot fathom the damage something as severe, pervasive and irreversible as global warming can cause. The Fifth Assessment Report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned about the alarming impacts of global warming highlighting a carbon budget for future emissions below 2°C

The global pandemic has given us a chance to reset and restart.

It is essential to integrate renewable energy like wind and solar in the economic recovery packages and formulate stimulus policies that will initiate an energy transition towards a sustainable future.

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The global energy systems are experiencing rapid change, driven by technological innovation, change in demand and supply patterns and policy shifts. While this offers a wonderful opportunity to address systemic challenges such as energy inclusivity, job creation, energy affordability and carbon emissions; it poses some key questions to the decision makers such as what is required from the developing countries to have a similar energy transition? And what groundwork do these nations need to carry out to seize such opportunities as no stakeholder present in the energy systems alone could drive such a change?

 

While this process is continuously evolving, our Think 2025 platform ensures energy efficiency readiness through conversations and actions to enable an environment for effective energy transition.

The Vision

The Covid19 crisis seems to have brought forward various avenues to accelerate energy transition while highlighting the need for a collaborative approach that brings together the government, private institutions, and the society. Reon understands the diverse challenges faced by the energy systems today cannot be addressed in isolation; hence, we aim to support corporate actions and public-private partnerships for an inclusive, affordable, sustainable energy future and greater wellbeing.

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Virtual Power Plants (VPP) have been the talk of the town and are gaining immense popularity. These are cloud-based distributed power plants that aggregate the resources of various distributed power generating units to enhance energy generation and even trade units on the electricity market.

What are Virtual Power Plants?

Virtual Power Plants (VPP’s) are a network of decentralized, medium scale power generating units such as solar parks, wind farms, and storage systems in a cloud-based setting. These interconnected units are transmitted through the central control room of the Virtual Power Plant but remain independent in their ownership and operation.
The primary objective of a Virtual Power Plant is to forecast, monitor, optimize, and dispatch energy generation and consumption while relieving the load on the grid. This is achieved through intelligent distribution of the power generated by individual units during periods of peak load.

 

Decentralization and Virtual Power Plants (VPP)

Virtual Power Plants seem to have a promising future by reaping cost-savings and environmental benefits for the grid, consumers, and utility companies. VPP within the distributed system offers a way to forgo capital intensive investments, create grid reliability and operational optimization.

Distributed energy generation at such a scale in Pakistan would need both technological and institutional change that maximizes the use of renewables- especially solar and wind. The good news is that decentralized assets is the now in trend worldwide and VPP’s makes it possible for such smaller assets to get the same regulatory treatment as power plants.

 

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I-V curve tracing offers a quick and reliable method for assessing the true performance of Solar PV modules and traditional string inverter systems. The technique is especially utilized by Solar PV installers for real-time module monitoring and performance evaluation.

How does it work?

I-V Curve Tracing is a method of electrically testing the PV module and photovoltaic array and ensuring that it performs at optimum level. This test can be conducted at any time during the manufacture, installation, commissioning, performance and troubleshooting phase to ensure productivity. A device, called the I-V Curve Tracer can be installed for this purpose, which measures current and power as a function of voltage. This test can be applied on individual strings and the captured results can be compared to expected results for any variation.

I-V Curve tracing helps in determining the optimum combination of current and voltage to maximize yield as illustrated in the figure below. The red line depicts maximum output achieved through the best combination of current and voltage whereas the dotted line shows reduced output which may be a result of several factors such as a module mismatch, soiling, and more.

 

What are the Benefits Of I-V CURVE TRACING?

Some key benefits of I-V Curve Tracing include:

Lower risks during startup and commissioning
Thorough system performance baselines
Effective and expedited troubleshooting
Better performance modeling
Detailed testing reports and analytics
Reduced system downtime
I-V Curve Tracing can also help in detecting module faults such as shading, soiling, series resistance and module mismatch. Immediate identification of these issues can allow technicians to make timely array layout adjustments, repairs and warranty claims.

I-V Curve Tracing is currently one of the most comprehensive methods of testing PV modules and strings to regulate and optimize the performance of each array in the PV system.

 

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