TU Delft to test three rechargeable batteries to power houses

Researchers at TU Delft, in collaboration with Eneco, will be testing rechargeable batteries to power houses in three separate projects. The researchers will look at the home batteries usability for intelligent power management, how well they work charging electric vehicles and their direct current technology, the university announced. Eneco plans to be the first supplier of Tesla home batteries in the Netherlands. These three research projects will be done by research group DC Systems, Energy Conversion & Storage, led by professor Pavol Bauer. According to the university, the uncertainty and uncontrollably of solar radiation poses a problem for energy systems. This means that energy storage systems are necessary to provide energy when the solar radiation is erratic or non-existent. This is possible through using a battery system in conjunction with solar panels (PV modules). For this part of the project, researchers will simulate a domestic installation in the Netherlands. The goal is to evaluate how effective the home battery is for intelligent energy management, judged on the basis of implementation costs, efficiency, payback and self-sufficiency. The second part of the research study is to test the efficiency of the combination of electric vehicles and solar energy. The goal is to develop an efficient, modular, smart charging station for electric vehicles that works on solar energy. For this the researchers developed an efficient multi-port inverter, with which PV generators, electric vehicles and the electricity grid can be integrated with each other. To test this effectively, a smart storage system that can mimic an electric vehicle is required. The researchers will use home batteries as this smart storage system. The last part of the research study will focus on the batteries direct current technology capabilities. It is expected that there will be congestion in the electricity distribution networks, due to the emergence of distributed renewable energy sources and increased taxation due to, among other things, increased popularity in electric vehicles. Distributed storage can be used to control the congestion and to prevent power supply needing to be increased. The researchers will use the home battery as a storage element that responds to fluctuations in the electricity grid.