Blog series: PV at IBC SOLAR, part I: The components

Since the founding of IBC SOLAR, we have of course not only equipped our customers with complete PV systems, but also invested in our own in-house system. And this has grown steadily over the years. No wonder, because with almost 250 employees at the Bad Staffelstein headquarters alone, the demand for electricity is correspondingly high. In addition, PV can do a lot, and this comes to the fore with IBC SOLAR’s home system. In a multi-part series, we now provide an insight into the complex PV system: from the components to the development to the complex topics of energy management system (EMS) and e-mobility.

Photovoltaics is our passion. And as PV and storage experts, we naturally want the electricity at IBC SOLAR to be exclusively green and preferably come directly from the roof. In other words, self-produced. For this purpose, we have a self-consumption PV system with an output of 24 kilowatt peak (kWp). In addition, a solar carport with an output of 125.6 kWp was built. In addition to the inverters, the IBC SOLAR home system also includes a battery storage cluster of 70 kilowatt hours and an energy management system (EMS). And the area of e-mobility is not neglected either. A total of six wallboxes and a charging station with three charging points are available to employees and customers, with which private e-cars can be charged free of charge during the day.  

The solar carport at IBC SOLAR

Decentralised energy generation and intelligent self-consumption

These components form the basis needed for peak shaving, load management of the charging infrastructure and heat coupling. Our home system has a lot to offer and is also extremely innovative. This is because it intelligently networks all of these listed application areas with each other, so that self-consumption is increased, the load on the grid connection point is reduced as well as the expenses for electricity purchases and grid fees – and all of the regulatory requirements are met at the same time!

The battery storage system at the headquarters in Bad Staffelstein.

A special feature is that the battery storage system can be used independently and for different purposes. At IBC SOLAR’s headquarters, as already mentioned, they are used for increasing self-consumption and for the targeted reduction of grid fees through the application of peak shaving. The storage system contributes approximately 13,000 kWh of solar power annually. The central EMS at a higher level records all relevant status data in the system and then passes on corresponding control commands to the respective devices. Furthermore, in the area of charging infrastructure, we have created the necessary prerequisites for integrating wallboxes and charging columns into a backend in the future, regardless of the manufacturer. For the correct connection, the wallboxes and charging columns have the OCPP1.6 communication protocol.

Our goal? In view of the high demand for electricity and the ever-increasing number of e-cars charging in front of the house, we want to generate the energy on site, manage it intelligently and consume as much of the self-generated electricity as possible on site without the need for grid expansion. And this is fully met with our in-house system.

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