A German university has introduced a solar carport equipped with 237 kilowatts-peak (kWp) of photovoltaic capacity and a 200-kilowatt-hour (kWh) sodium-ion battery for excess energy storage.
Located at the Diepholz campus of the Private University of Applied Sciences for Business and Technology (PHWT), the new installation was officially inaugurated on November 9. It has a total of 90 covered spaces and a battery system that uses sodium instead of lithium.
The structure is home to the first sodium-ion battery storage system in the state of Lower Saxony, and the third in the country. It will reportedly allow the campus to store electricity for later use, especially during periods of high demand.
PHWT representatives highlighted the facility’s most striking feature. “The existing parking lot is arranged in a semicircle with two rows of parking spaces,” they said. “The aim was to incorporate this unusual geometry into the roof design.”
To bring the unusual design to life, solar energy company PfefferKnecht came up with a custom metal structure that follows the parking area’s curved layout. Local engineering firm and longstanding university partner, Böckmann Maschinenbau, then erected the structure.
According to PHWT, the carport’s roof covers roughly 12,378 square feet (1,150 square meters) and incorporates glass-glass photovoltaic modules. These panels provide around 230 kWp of installed solar capacity.
3 kWp. The bicycle facility can accommodate 20 bikes. “A patented feature of the structure is that the individual photovoltaic modules also serve as a seamless, waterproof roof covering,” PHWT said.
Source link
