Bosch Provides Turnkey Storage Systems for Commercial and Utility Projects

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bosch is bringing its German-engineered energy storage solution to the North American market to help customers better integrate renewables, lower utility bills, and supply higher quality power.

An ideal combination: high-power and high-energy dual battery system for wind power facility in Braderup

From mid-July, a custom-made hybrid system comprising two high-performance battery types will store excess electricity generated at a community wind farm in Braderup, Germany. Bosch will supply the project with a compound battery made up of lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow components, along with the complete system controls. This compound battery will store electrical energy when power grids on the windy coast are overloaded and cannot transport any more electricity. "With this concept, we are expanding the range of possible applications for our storage systems," says Cordelia Thielitz, head of Bosch's stationary storage business area.

Making wind power available, whatever the weather
The purpose of the storage system is to enable windpower to feed into the grid at all times—regardless of the wind's intensity. If too much wind power is being generated, the hybrid storage system absorbs the excess and feeds it into the grid when too little is being generated.

Bosch's Cordelia Thielitz explains the venture's approach as follows: "Lithium-ion batteries are sometimes called "high-power batteries" because of their ability to absorb and release large amounts of electrical energy over a short period of time, while vanadium redox flow, or "high-energy" batteries store large amounts of energy very efficiently over long periods of time...The resulting storage facility is an important milestone on the road to the renewable energy supply of the future. We want to demonstrate that wind-turbine power generation does not have to be shut down when the grid is overloaded. This advance brings the goal of a renewable, efficient, and more distributed energy system several steps closer."

Total peak output: 2,325 kilowatts
The storage facility, which is to be situated on former farmland, has a total output of 2,325 kilowatts and a total capacity of 3,000 kilowatt hours. "That is enough to cover the electricity needs of 40 average single-family homes for seven days and nights," says Bosch's Johannes Kostka, the project's commercial manager.

Offering flexibility
As a leading global supplier of technology and services, Bosch is responsible for developing the control electronics, system integration, and testing different operating variants in Braderup. This includes marketing the batteries in the frequency regulation market, taking part of the energy and using it for the wind farm's own consumption, trading on the electricity exchange, and stabilizing the power grid. "The hybrid storage facility is very flexible," says Felix Maus, technical project manager at Bosch. "On the one hand, it stores electricity for use or sale. On the other, it can balance out short-term fluctuations in demand or energy production in order to keep the power grid stable. Remember that production and demand must be in equilibrium at all times. Another problem in the power grid is voltage fluctuations, which can damage grid installations. To prevent this, the storage facility's power electronics are capable of feeding so-called reactive power into the grid."

Another Bosch associate adds: "When the battery is installed, we can supply renewable energy even when the wind is not blowing. Having solved this major problem, our community wind farm will become a reliable partner that can deliver a continuous supply of renewably generated electricity."

Bosch's advanced energy storage system is now available in the US market to meet the needs of commercial and utility customers.

SOURCE Bosch