Power plant products | World’s first SF6-free 420 kV GIS


Hitachi Energy has announced that it will provide what is believed to be the world’s first sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) free 420 kV gas-insulated switchgear technology and a state-of-the-art modular prefabricated grid connection solution at a key node. It is to be located on TenneT’s power grid in Germany. The overall project covers a major grid connection upgrade intended to significantly extend the operating life of existing power assets. Hitachi will deliver its EconiQ 420 kV


GIS that uses technology that eliminates SF6 with what are said to be reliable and scalable solutions for the lowest carbon footprint. Hitachi will contribute ‘pioneering technologies, unique system integration capabilities, engineering expertise and extensive experience with local grid code requirements’ to strengthen the grid connection at the 220 MW Erzhausen pumped storage power plant near Hanover. This project uses ‘building information modelling’, a


consolidated and collaborative digital working method that allows decision-based 3D modelling and improves facility management via a digital twin for the life cycle of the power asset.


The entire project will be completed in 2026. Hitachi Energy will install three bays of EconiQ 420 kV GIS, the unit being similar in size while being as fully reliable as the conventional GIS solution based on SF6, and will effectively avoid the use of nearly 2300 kg of SF6.


Thin-film PV paired for greater performance


ZSW says it has combined perovskite with CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) to build a ‘tandem solar module’ with 21% + efficiency. It believes this module to be a promising next- generation technolog. Made of two sandwiched solar modules, it delivers more electrical energy than conventional panels. The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has now achieved 21.1 percent efficiency with this technology. These thin-film-based modules are said to be


Perovskite top solar module


highly efficient, but also be light and flexible. Modules made of lightweight, flexible materials make feasible many applications that remain closed to the standard rigid modules found in solar parks.


CIGS bottom solar module


After decades of rigorous research, the efficiency of the prevailing silicon cells is fast approaching the practical limit of around 27%. As it stands, says ZSW, there is only one technology that promises further increases to well over 30 %, and that is the tandem solar module. It consists of solar cells made of different materials layered on top of one another. The different active layers work together to increase efficiency by jointly making better use of the width of the solar spectrum than each single solar cell does on its own. A group of materials is thought to hold great promise for tandem solar modules, namely metal-organic perovskites. “Some compounds in this class of materials exhibit excellent optical and electronic properties and are abundantly and inexpensively available,” said Dr Jan-Philipp Becker, head of ZSW’s Photovoltaics Materials Research department. “With their high optical energy bandgap, compounds in the top solar module are able to use the high-energy range of the solar spectrum


very efficiently. At the same time, they allow a considerable share of the spectrum’s low- energy range to pass through to the lower solar module.”


Conventional silicon PV cells would appear to be the obvious choice for the bottom solar module. However, an even more interesting proposition is to use thin-film technologies exclusively. The bottom module can also be made of perovskite, or of CIGS, which is the case in ZSW’s module. CIGS is a mix of materials – copper, indium and gallium vapour – deposited on to a rigid or flexible substrate in a selenium atmosphere. ZSW and its partners had developed this technology and ramped it up for mass production in earlier projects. CIGS’s spectral absorption can be tailored to a perfect fit for the tandem composite. ZSW’s tandem solar module has an area of nine square cm and achieves 21.1% efficiency. This prototype also features scalable component architecture suitable for industrial manufacturing. The best performance attained to date with tandem solar modules made of perovskite and CIGS is just slightly higher at 22 %. ZSW has already achieved an efficiency level of 26.6% with this combination of materials in smaller laboratory cells.


Arenko battery optimiser launched


Arenko has announced the launch of its Nimbus product range for battery owners. The product range is a complete software solution that can connect and optimise batteries using Arenko’s automation technology, AI, enhanced analytics and deep- learning algorithms.


Arenko’s aim is to provide a platform that operates via intelligent control of energy assets, and provides the technology for the industry to freely innovate. The new products are characterised individually as follows:


● ‘Nimbus-Asset’ unlocks improved asset performance and allows participation in the most advanced of energy markets;


● ‘Nimbus-Exchange’ provides simple and cost-effective access to multiple power markets and grid operators;


● ‘Nimbus-Trade’ is an off the shelf solution to simplify the trading of energy storage assets, enabling customers to control assets and scale faster;


● ‘Nimbus-Marketplace’ is a digital marketplace providing access to a network


38 | November/December 2022| www.modernpowersystems.com


of innovative software products via Arenko’s third party developers, providing customers with a new degree of flexibility to maximise the value from their energy storage assets.


Nimbus is designed give asset owners the means to maximise financial and technical performance across their battery assets and portfolio. The products can be employed individually or bundled together, and are designed for standalone batteries and batteries co-located with renewables.


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