Almacenamiento de energía

A medida que entra en funcionamiento más energía solar y eólica, resulta cada vez más difícil y costoso garantizar la estabilidad de la red. Por lo tanto, el almacenamiento intermedio de energía se está convirtiendo rápidamente en una herramienta esencial para mantener las fluctuaciones de energía en la red dentro de límites manejables. Además, a medida que disminuyen las tarifas de alimentación, el caso de negocio para un sistema de almacenamiento de energía doméstico que aumente el autoconsumo se vuelve más sólido cada día. El almacenamiento intermedio de energía aumenta el autoconsumo de energía solar y/o eólica cosechada. El siguiente paso natural es el autoconsumo al 100% y la independencia de la red.

Almacenamiento de energía residencial con Victron ESS. Domine su energía sin concesiones

Una red sobrecargada, el fin de la medición neta, tarifas impredecibles: es hora de una mayor independencia energética. Con un Victron ESS, obtendrá un sistema de gestión y almacenamiento de energía sin concesiones que tomará las mejores decisiones energéticas por usted. En pocas palabras: una batería doméstica, pero mucho, mucho más inteligente. Maximice el rendimiento de sus paneles solares, ahorre dinero cada día y mantenga las luces encendidas durante los apagones.

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Victron ESS para aplicaciones comerciales. La energía a la altura de su ambición

Tiene planes. Maquinaria más pesada, vehículos eléctricos de empresa, ampliación de sus instalaciones. Pero cuando solicita una conexión a la red diferente, descubre que hay miles de empresas en la cola delante de usted. Con un sistema de almacenamiento de energía Victron, evita esa cola y toma el control usted mismo: obtiene más energía de su conexión existente, maximiza su uso de energía solar, reduce sus facturas de energía y garantiza la continuidad durante los apagones.

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Dairy over the moon with solar power

This week let’s hear from Franz Sohm about a prestigious solar award for a traditional Austrian dairy: Surrounded by steep alpine pastures, the centuries-old dairy farm Der Mooshof is venturing into the future. Der Mooshof is one of the largest farms in the Bregenzerwald region. Three generations of the Greber family work here full-time, with around 80 dairy cows, young cattle, goats, and pigs. In its ongoing efforts to optimize operations, Der Mooshof wanted to overcome the limitations of its rural power supply and avoid the sometimes serious consequences of power outages. It commissioned solar power installer Greenfuture GmbH to plan and implement a system that would guarantee a reliable supply – and received a system that was awarded the Austrian Solar Prize in the Industry, Trade and Agriculture category in 2025. Dairy farming is energy-intensive. Mooshof’s two robotic milking systems ensure the cows are milked consistently. It’s a process that cannot be interrupted without risking udder infections and potentially losing animals. Automatic feeding machinery prepares rations throughout the day. Milk must be cooled immediately; cheese production requires reliable heating, stirring, and refrigeration. There’s lighting, of course, and power requirement for the background IT infrastructure …not to mention several family homes which add to the load. Until recently, the Mooshof relied on a 50 kWp PV system and grid power, which is limited to 80 kW input/output power at this location. Since power outages can cause enormous costs, the Greber family had to regularly operate an emergency power generator – even short interruptions endanger animals and livelihoods alike. Tobias Sohm, Installer Greenfuture expanded the existing solar system from 50 kWp to 180 kWp and used roofs and facades to achieve maximum yields even in winter. A comprehensive modernization of the storage capacities now delivers 500 kWh from a lithium battery bank with 100 Pytes V5 modules – enough to supply the farm autonomously for up to three days, even in unfavorable weather conditions. To circumvent strict grid limits, the Victron system ensures intelligent peak load coverage and an uninterruptible power supply that automatically takes over in less than 20 milliseconds – fully compatible with existing Fronius, Kostal, and Huawei inverters. The base load is around 15 kW, but can rise to up to 70 kW for seasonal work. On such days, electricity consumption rises to up to 1,000 kWh within 24 hours. “Thanks to a charging capacity of more than 150 kVA, even short periods of sunshine are enough to fully charge the batteries,” explains Tobias Sohm. The Mooshof has two interconnected solar power systems connected by three MultiPlus inverters/chargers, so that energy surpluses and deficits can be balanced between the two systems. This is a decisive step towards total autonomy, which already covers more than 90% of the electricity demand today. The resulting energy cost savings of €30,000 per year will fully amortize the initial investment costs in just a few years. The larger system comprises: 6 × Quattro 48/15000 Inverter/Charger 6 × SmartSolar MPPT RS 450/200 Solar Charge Controller 1 × SmartSolar MPPT RS 450/100 Solar Charge Controller Integration with existing Fronius, Kostal, and Huawei AC inverters 500 kWh lithium battery storage (100 × Pytes V5 modules) The system is controlled by a Cerbo GX data communication centre which provides local access to system status and programming via a GX Touch , and access from anywhere in the world via the free-to-use Victron Remote Management platform VRM . The second, independent PV system supplies the cheese production building and, after the upgrade, comprises 3 × Quattro 48/15000, 250 kWh batteries, and expanded PV capacity. The generator remains connected and starts automatically as soon as the battery charge level becomes too low. Greenfuture GmbH is run by brothers Tobias and Fabian Sohm, who literally grew up with photovoltaics. Their father, Franz Sohm, won the European Solar Prize in 1999 and is still active in the B2B sector with his company Solar Energy Anstalt. For the Mooshof project, Franz was particularly pleased to be working with his sons again – not least because he grew up just 300 meters from the Greber farm and knows the family well. Martin Greber and Franz’s father have always been close friends. The Greber family had initially looked at other systems, but needed the guarantee of immediate load transfer in the event of a power failure – without this criterion, the entire project would have been pointless. Today, they proudly demonstrate how it works to visitors by disconnecting the grid and having the Quattros take over in a fraction of a second – without even a flicker of the lights. Heat for residential buildings, cheese production, and, when needed, hay drying is provided by a 350 kW wood chip heating system fueled by wood from the farm’s own forest—an efficient closed-loop system that fits perfectly with the farm’s sustainable philosophy. From the 300 cowbells that ring every summer when the herd moves up to the high alpine pastures to the state-of-the-art hybrid energy system that powers their work, the Mooshof impressively combines tradition and innovation. It proves that even remote mountain farms can become energy self-sufficient, resilient, and economically stronger. For the Greber family, the Solar Prize is much more than an award—it is an incentive. “Our project is intended to motivate other farms to take the step toward energy self-sufficiency.” The next goal is clear: the entire farm is to become energy self-sufficient. The next goal is clear: the entire farm is to become energy self-sufficient. All images of the family or their livestock shown above are from © Markus Gmeiner.

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Brewing from nature

Agnieszka Łopata has a passion for brewing. She began home-brewing in 2009, won a Master Brewer award, completed a university course in brewing, and became a professional brewer in 2013. The craft brewery she opened with business partner Andrzej Czech – URSA MAIOR – is located in Uherce Mineralne in the picturesque Bieszczady region of Poland, and has established itself as a prominent craft brewery using innovative and traditional ingredients. Their range includes organic beers made with wild herbs for bittering, in place of the more widely used hops. URSA MAIOR is committed to low carbon production, minimum waste, and maximum use of solar power during the brewing of its five hundred thousand litre annual output. The brewery has a solar array of almost 40kWp and stores energy into a Pylontech lithium battery bank which has a capacity of 100kWh. ENERP Installer Bartłomiej Choroszczyński with brewer Andrzej Czech The system was installed by Enerp – who specialise in static solar-based energy installations for commercial and domestic applications. Enerp had already provided wildlife cameraman Andrzej Czech with an off grid energy system for his cabin deep in the forest. Andrzej was so impressed that he made the decision to invest in green energy for the brewery. 3-phase AC is required to power the industrial processes such as heating the mash water and controlling the fermentation temperature. Three Victron Quattros each rated at 15kVA and configured for 3-phase supply are AC coupled to two Fronius Symo 20.0-3-M 20kW inverters. In this arrangement, the Quattro’s ‘Limit feed-in’ ability controls the Fronius Inverters over Modbus TCP integration – preventing excess power from being sent to the grid in accordance with the export limit. Victron Remote Management provides real-time and historic data. Password protected access to the settings is available from anywhere world. Data communication between all cross-manufacture devices is enabled by a Cerbo GX which also uploads real time data to Victron Energy’s free-to-use remote management platform VRM . VRM provides engineering access to the system so that its behaviour can be observed, and settings can be modified and tweaked remotely. One of the greatest benefits of commercial Energy Storage Systems (ESS) – apart, obviously, from the reduced cost per unit of energy! – is the security of having an uninterruptible power supply. When goods or consumables are being manufactured, a grid failure at just the wrong moment can be extremely costly in terms of spoiled raw materials, damaged machinery and lost labour costs. There have been two grid failures since this installation was completed – neither had the slightest impact on the brewing process. Energy in a box The cost of grid energy and a desire for energy security is driving interest in ownership of private 3-phase solar energy installations for businesses. For companies with limited internal space, and for those with near-continuous production who cannot contemplate days of on-premises rewiring, containerised power is the answer. Bartłomiej Choroszczyński from Enerp says: For us, containerised energy systems are the right way to help companies with energy transformation within our dynamically changing energy market. Now every company needs renewables to balance their costs. Using energy storage systems allows for increasing independence from the grid. Peak shaving For many growing businesses who use a lot of energy during certain industrial processes – but only for a limited period of time, the ability to cover those peak power demands by adding power from their own battery storage on top of the grid power allows their company to continue trading without upgrading a limited grid power supply. The cost of upgrade can be huge; sometimes, owing to infrastructure limitations, it won’t even be possible. Power Assist is a feature unique to Victron Energy. Whenever energy demand from the AC source (grid or generator) goes above a predetermined current level, the Inverter/charger will add battery power to the AC source to meet the high demand without exceeding the grid (generator) limit. Successful businesses soon outgrow their initial grid connection. Energy Storage Systems meet their expanding demand for energy – allowing the business to continue to grow secure in the knowledge that they will have sufficient energy capacity to meet high-consumption factory processes. Containerised ESS – see it at Poland’s Battery Forum Trade Fair Enerp have built a 20 foot open door energy container for customer demonstration and for use at public exhibitions. Its 3-phase AC output is provided by 6 x Quattro 15 kVA Inverter/Chargers drawing from a 200 kWh Pylontech US5000 battery bank. Visitors will see an EV plugged into a Victron EV charging station NS. The unit is capable of running huge loads and offers both AC and DC distribution. Bartłomiej says : We have an actual installation using one of these containers at a company called CONCEPT – which is general contractor. We travel with a 135kVA model to promote this kind of solution at trade fairs in Poland. It is configured to work with a combustion generator and solar/wind installations and is designed to provide peak shaving, renewables balancing and to provide backup power for the company. Enerp will be present at Battery Forum , which takes place on 22 May, exhibiting their commercial ESS built using Victron Energy core devices. You can find them on stand B2.23

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Venus OS v3.00 – Generator start/stop improvements, ESS Peak shaving

Good day! Today we are releasing Venus OS v3.00. For those not familiar with Venus OS: it is the software running on our Cerbo GX monitoring system , as well as its predecessors the Color Control GX , Venus GX . Also, it is in the GX versions of our MultiPlus-II and EasySolar-II inverter/chargers. This new release has improvements in the following main areas: Several improvements to the GX Generator start/stop functionality Peak shaving, and improved control speed for ESS Disable the touch feature on a GX Touch Let’s go into the details: Improvements to Generator control There are several new generator start/stop related improvements. Firstly, warm-up and cool-down options have been added. This allows you to set a configurable time for the generator to run from the relay control, while the AC input relay is open and the inverter/charger is not connected to it. The warm up and cooldown settings are available in the Generator start/stop menu of the GX device when a relay is enabled for Generator start/stop, and the VE.Bus Inverter/Charger firmware has been updated to 502 or later. Secondly, we added an option to stop a back-up generator that is connected to either ACin 1 when the grid returns. Until now, that feature was only available for systems with the generator wired to ACin 2. More recent information on wiring systems that have both a generator as well as a connection to the utility grid is here . .. Note that for both features to be available, it is necessary to trigger the update the firmware of the built-in MK3. Doing that is really simple, see further below for instructions. Peak Shaving for ESS There is a new Peak shaving option for ESS systems set to Optimised modes. Previously once an ESS system had discharged to the minimum state of charge it would no longer assist the loads to shave the peaks. This is now improved: the new peak shaving feature will make the system keep PowerAssisting when the loads exceed the AC input current limit. Thereafter, as soon as the peak is over, it will recharge the battery using power from the grid, while still prioritising solar. Note that there is a 5% hysteresis on the recharge: when for example the Minimum SOC is configured to 50%, it will then start recharging only once (by peak shaving) the battery has dropped to 45%. It will then recharge back to 50% SOC, whereafter it continues its normal ESS operation: wait for solar power to further charge the battery. To enable, go to the Peak Shaving menu in the ESS setting on your GX device and change the setting to ‘Always’. Note – this works for the critical loads on the AC output only, not those connected to an energy meter. We also fixed some bugs where PV was not used for loads when scheduled charging to 100% during the daytime, and where an AC PV-inverter on AC-in-2 would not be shown in the ESS overview. Scheduled Charging Scheduled charging is a feature that allows additional control over charging and discharging your ESS system based around time of use. Previously you could set up a scheduled charging window, and once the battery was charged to the target, it would stop charging, and also disable discharging remaining at that state of charge, waiting until the scheduled charging mode finished before it would begin discharging again. In Venus v3.00 there is a new ‘Self-consumption above limit’ option that allows an ESS system to discharge during a scheduled charging period as long as the SOC remains above the programmed SOC limit. This new setting can be useful if a scheduled charge slot with a lower SOC limit setting follows another slot with a higher target. This means you can now choose how much of your battery is allowed to discharge during certain periods of the day. This allows you to balance how much and when you charge from the grid, how much battery backup you maintain, ensure your batteries get a good regular recharge, and have some spare capacity to recharge from solar. More flexibility to optimise for the many different grid tariffs, times and conditions around the world. Disable the touch feature on a GX Touch There are many situations where you want to have the Cerbo GX screen visible to show what the system is doing, but disable any kind of touch interaction or control. We’ve now added a new feature to disable the touch input. This additional control restriction should be considered anywhere the touch screen is accessible to the public or an untrained end-user, such as someone renting a hybrid generator system. This is done by installing a small push button switch, and programming one of the digital inputs. When pressed the switch will make a momentary connection of the programmable digital input, enabling or disabling the touch control. More details and information about “Hardening a GX device” is available here . Node-RED We continue to see innovative solutions from system designers who are exploring the potential and control that Node-RED offers them over their Victron equipment. Many solutions that previously depended on Victron engineers, or 3rd party hardware, can now be done completely by their own teams with the Victron equipment they already have today. Given the success we will continue to improve the platform, to make it easier to get started, and more reliable for the long run. This screenshot shows what the Node-RED editor looks like: More details on that example for are in a video shared by ENERP . These are the Node-RED related changes in Venus OS 3.00: Change how the Node-RED nodes identify which Victron device they configured for. This now uses the dbus /DeviceInstance path, instead of the the full service path. To use that, all existing flows will need to be manually migrated. But until you migrate, your flows will remain functional. More details on this specific change here: https://github.com/victronenergy/node-red-contrib-victron/releases/tag/v1.4.25 . A few extra nodes have been added (input-pump, output-pump, output-battery), and several existing nodes got extra paths. Added two options to output nodes: (1) rounding of values, and (2) output only on value changes. Several importable examples have been added and the documentation has been updated. Note that Victron cannot offer support for Node-RED flows. If you think you’ve found a bug, or have a feature request, the correct channel to get in touch is via the Victron Commmunity Modifications space . To learn more about Node-RED, see our manual for it , as well as our library of documented example flows . Bluetooth improvements for Cerbo GX There was an unfortunate issue that affected Cerbo GX units with serial number HQ2207 and earlier where the built in Bluetooth was limited by internal temperature. The good news is that as of HQ2208 and later, and all Cerbo-S GX, we’ve added an additional improved Bluetooth radio. This v3.00 firmware release will use that one. Note for Ruuvi temperature sensing, it is still fine to have additional external long range USB bluetooth radios to even further improve coverage. All connected Bluetooth radios will be used for reading Ruuvi data. Other i mprovements since v2.90 The last blog post about a Venus release was version v2.90 . We released a few smaller point release bug fixes so they didn’t need to wait for this full release of v3.00. For more details about these and other smaller changes, please also check the v2.90-2.93 change-log: Fixed a problem where sometimes the Remote Console wouldn’t work, and required a factory reset to recover. Any system that was having this issue will be fixed automatically once updated to v2.93 or v3.00. The EV Charging Station added the new Scheduled mode, and more. Fixed a timezone bug related to ESS Scheduled Charging: after changing the time zone, a reboot was required to make that use the new time zone. Restore Modbus-TCP register 31, VE.Bus State. Fixed Zigbee (DRF2685C) detection. Add support for ABB B-series meters for use in ESS (see release notes for exact models) Fixed a bug in Fronius PV Inverter integration that very seldomly caused spikes of PV power to be logged on the VRM Portal. DVCC for Freedom WON batteries changed SVS to no longer be forced off. Instead, the installer can choose between On and Off. For most systems, we recommend keeping it off. Contact FreedomWON for more information. More Energy Meters as well as 3rd party lithium batteries We added support for the full EM300 range of energy meters from Carlo Gavazzi, and in addition significant performance improvements have been made to the control loop when using the EM540 meter. It is now preferable to use the EM540 meter where suitable. Pylontech and Hubble BMS batteries Support was added for Pylontech batteries with 16 cells in series (rather than usual 15 cells), and we now force know-good settings for Hubble batteries (DVCC on, STS off, SVS off). Manual step for MK3 update For Venus OS v3.00 to be complete, one manual step is required: updating the MK3 controller that is embedded into the GX device. There is a small chance, our statistics show approx. 5%, that that update triggers a short system restart, i.e your inverter/charger might turn off and on again. Which is also why we have made it such that it needs to be triggered manually. On systems not updated yet, you’ll see this (after going to the Device list, and then into the MultiPlus, Quattro or EasySolar listing): If you don’t see this message, it means you’re already up to date. Note that this additional manual step is only necessary only for this one update. Hereafter, MK3 updates will be silent again, like they used to be; since normally there is no risk of a short system outage. Many more changes: change log There are many more improvements, specific bug fixes and under-the-hood updates (notably for Modbus-TCP, Venus OS large (Node-RED & Signal K), DVCC, developers, VE.Bus BMS). To read the details, see the full change log by logging into Victron Professional and selecting ‘Firmware’ -> ‘Venus OS’ -> ‘firmware changelog’. Information about how to install the firmware is in the manual of your GX Device. Quick links to the relevant pages can be found here: Cerbo GX , Color Control GX and for the Venus GX . Until next time, sincerely yours, Matthijs Vader Victron Energy BV

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Can Solar Power really look this good?

When the owner of a luxury villa asks for a major solar installation to be retro-fitted to his architecturally interesting property without spoiling the appearance, you know it’s going to be challenging. Surface mounted utilities isn’t work you can hide, but local solar experts Freelight – who also have offices in Spain – saw an opportunity to add further interest to the architectural design of this stylish property near Almancil – Portugal’s Golden Triangle in the Algarve – and made it look easy! Power blackouts and voltage drops together with ever-rising energy costs set the owner on a mission to find alternative ways of enjoying his built-in facilities with increased reliability, and in a way which was greener, and at less cost. He has circulation pumps and filtration plants for the swimming pools and irrigation system; together with underfloor heating serving over 1000m² of floor area – all of which totted up bills of thousands of euros per month. With their knowledge of the market Freelight designed a three phase system comprising: 30 x 305Wp Monocrystalline All-Black panels (9150Wp) 55 x 275Wp Policrystalline Trina panels (24.275kWp) There are two grid-tied Fronius Inverter Fronius Symo 10.0-3-M Fronius Symo 15.0-3-M (25kW in total) There are three Victron Inverters Victron Quattro 48/15000 (45kVA in total) Energy is stored in three racks of 6 x Pylontech US3000B – with a total capacity of 63kWh – and a Pylontech LV-Hub Whole-system communication and control is performed by a Color Control GX. The GX device has many functions, including controlling the solar harvest, battery charging, Solar inverter output; and communicating with a Carlo Gavazzi EM24 Grid Meter. The system is configured to be an Energy Saving System (ESS) designed to optimise self-consumption and battery storage, and minimising the purchase/sale of energy to the grid. The ESS system includes 45kVA of Victron inverter power, 25kWp of solar PV and 2 Fronius inverters Victron GX communication devices support an extensive range of third party storage and switching equipment, allowing endless combinations of product to function seamlessly; and to be remotely controlled and configured using the Victron Remote Management (VRM) platform. 63kWh of Pylontech battery storage Remote access allows Freelight to monitor customer’s installations and carry out programme changes without leaving the office. The owner is delighted both with his new system’s performance and appearance – indoors and out. Larry Parker of Freelight says: “The greatest challenge of this installation was to aesthetically integrate the panels, cabling and inverter installation to make it fit in seamlessly with the visual attractiveness of the property both in terms of outside profile and interior design. Hence the decision to use the all-black panels which were placed flat on the roof to avoid being visible from the main road. “Together with other one-off adaptations to common traditional PV systems we feel our greatest success here has been the pleasing cosmetic appearance we achieved. We hope it will inspire local architects, at the design phase, to integrate PV and ESS solutions into their projects.”

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VIC – ESS turnkey power container

A biogas plant producing 500kVA has found that the most cost effective method of providing its own machinery with power is by using solar energy. It is more profitable to sell 100% of the energy it produces to the grid and to install a containerised solution to supply its own power needs in the form of a VIC – Sonnenspeicher VIC-ESS energy container. VIC-ESS container is a highly portable, powerful and instant turnkey solution to renewable power requirements. The biogas client has opted for a 200kWp solar array; coupled with a 120kWh Lithium Iron Mangan Phosphate battery bank. 200kWp solar array… The 90 kVA three-phase grid-parallel system uses 8 Fronius 25kVA inverters, together with 6 Victron Quattro 15kVA / 48V inverters. The grid is protected by a 250 kW ENS release point anti-islanding system. All hardware is controlled by a Color Control GX allowing system data be interrogated and managed via the Victron VRM portal from anywhere in the world. Further system monitoring – also read by the Color Control GX – is provided by Zigbee and Gavazzi meters. One of the advantages of the VIC-ESS container is that VIC – Sonnenspeicher complete the system build off-site – all tidily installed into an insulated, air-conditioned 20ft shipping container – and then deliver it to the customer ready to go. Assuming that electricity costs continue to rise VIC- Sonnenspeicher calculate that this installation will pay for itself in approximately 7 years. Their containers are configured as Energy Storage Systems (ESS) so that self-produced energy is made available for the consumer’s requirement – with surplus energy being used to charge the battery bank. Here a “zero feed in” power option prevents it from being fed to the grid. Containers can be paralleled, greatly extending the power which can be made available. Victron Quattro’s for example, can provide 3-phase power of up to 144kW / 180kVA, and more than 2500A charging capacity. This combination of Victron hardware, and system design and build by VIC-Sonnenspeicher allows reliable energy provision to be made available anywhere in the world – operational in the shortest possible time. Insulation being installed in a 20ft shipping container. Air conditioning is added, too.

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Almacenamiento de energía

Brochure Self-consumption & Energy Storage

Off-Grid, Backup & Storage Systems system examples booklet