Enfinity pushes use of battery storage

MANILA, Philippines - Belgian solar project developer Enfinity N.V. is pushing for the use of battery storage as low cost option in the power mix in the next five years as prices of the technology declines.

In a statement, Enfinity Philippines business development director William Ruccius said battery storage would strategically position solar power as a low cost option in the country’s power mix and address power outage situations in the future.

“Within five years, battery storage costs are predicted to go down by 85 percent which will make solar the low cost choice for intermediate load,” he said.

Intermediate load power plants are those that can provide supply on optimum operations, such as coal-fired and natural gas power plants.

But reliable power supply can be addressed by solar power through battery storage, which is also an ideal match to solar homes and as a micro-grid solution for areas under the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) of the National Power Corp.

“In the Philippines today, battery storage on the level of private houses is already affordable and people are already enjoying the benefits of this system,” Ruccius said.

For its part, Enfinity Philippines said it has already secured orders for more than 200 houses to be equipped with battery storage.

This is part of its roll out with joint venture partner Imperial Homes Corp. on solar homes project due for construction early next year.

“We would be able to build 10,000 of those systems (solar homes with battery storage) across the Philippines over a period of three years. There would be no brownouts anymore for these homes and the end-users will also be saving money,” Ruccius said.

The company official also noted they are currently working on a micro-grid solution, with central megawatt battery storage and solar on the houses that will power the whole community in the future without getting connected to the grid.”

This is eyed for launching in the latter part of 2016, Ruccius said.

In off-grid areas, the deployment of solar with battery storage is expected to drastically cut the P18-billion worth of subsidy payments that all Filipino consumers have been paying for the provision of energy in SPUG areas.

“Hybrid solar can provide power to these SPUG areas today 24 hours a day for a price less than the P14 to P45 per kilowatt hour – the prevailing electricity rate being charged to consumers in these areas,” Ruccius said.