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Topic of the Week: Subsidies (Part 5): Solar-plus-storage also needs no subsidies

This week, our topic of the week is subsidy-free solar installations. Today's final part presents a recent example of a megawatt-scale project that was recently completed and was fully funded without subsidies:

This combined solar and storage pipeline was broken ground in spring 2019 and completed last month, which is UK’s first government project to achieve 100% clean energy. It will store the excess energy in Sungrow’s state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery system to get more advantageous pricing for the solar plant’s output and provide grid balancing service to the National Grid.

The commissioning of this project is an important milestone for UK solar sector since it is the country’s largest utility-scale subsidy-free solar-plus-storage system, showing a significant opportunity for the next phase of growth for the solar market.

Technologically advanced system

As for the solar and storage technologies used in the project, the project fully adopted Sungrow’s integrated solar-plus-storage solution, consisting of 1500Vdc PV turnkey solution SG3125HV-MV, all-in-one ESS SC2500HV-MV and Samsung SDI Mega M2F battery modules. Sungrow’s new high performing PCS SC2500HV-MV lies in its ability to deliver high efficiency and compatible with high voltage battery system to improve yields and reduces O&M costs.#

Did you miss Sungrow`s innovative single-phase inverters presented at pv Guided Tours 2019? See here

Combined with bifacial panels and single-axis trackers, the system can contribute around a 20% increase in power generation, and it is expected to generate enough solar energy for 10,000 households per year.

Creating the future for renewable energy

“We’re proud to be part of this game-changing solar-plus-storage project. It provides industry a viable pipeline in addressing the challenges of the energy transition, while supporting clean energy innovation and saving money on energy bills,” said Andrew Lycett, General Manager of Sungrow UK. “Sungrow continues to be a clean energy leader and this project is a prime example of that leadership delivering benefits to the local community.” (HCN)

Here, in case you missed them, are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this week's series. Next week will be devoted to commercial rooftop solar.