ARDA Power and Gildemeister energy storage GmbH Collaborate on Burlington, ON DC Microgrid

The microgrid project will combine multiple energy sources (including solar and gas generation), energy storage, and DC and AC loads. The sources, storage and loads will all be integrated onto a single DC bus using the ARDA DC Microgrid Platform.The platform provides for increased efficiency, reduced cost and improved resiliency, while enabling the provision of ancillary services to the AC grid.

Gildemeister energy storage GmbH will supply its 20kW/100kWh CellCube flow battery system equipped with the ARDA Battery DC-DC Converter. The energy storage system plays a central power and energy management role in ARDA’s DC Microgrid Platform. Prior to the installation, Gildemeister energy storage GmbH and ARDA Power will develop and test all necessary interfaces between the CellCube battery and ARDA’s DC Microgrid controls.

The project, to be located on a commercial roof in Burlington, ON, will be funded with grants and collaborator contributions, including a $400,000 grant from Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

ARDA Power, located in Oakville Ontario, was created in 2011 to commercialize power conversion technology originally developed out of the University of Toronto. Its microgrid platform is a scalable microgrid solution consisting of a proprietary control system, and ARDA and third-party modular components. It enables the design and construction of commercial DC microgrids without customization.

Gildemeister energy storage GmbH, based in Wiener Neudorf, Austria, develops and commercializes vanadium redox flow energy storage systems. The “CellCube” has been developed over more than 15 years with around 10 years of practical application. The vanadium redox flow battery uses only liquid energy sources with dissolved vanadium salts. They are not subject to wear and tear through loss of reactive materials. Therefore, they offer practically unlimited cycles of charging and discharging with up to 80% efficiency and a deep discharge capability of 100%. Additionally, vanadium storage systems offer a high degree of safety as the liquid energy sources are neither flammable nor explosive and do not contain any elements harmful for the environment such as lead, cadmium or mercury. Based on the flow-battery principle, the CellCube is independently scalable in power and storage capacity.

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