Turnkey energy storage system provider Demand Energy has commissioned a solar-plus-storage microgrid in Costa Rica at a medical manufacturing facility.
The company, which has also recently announced a microgrid at a low-income housing complex in New York for utility Con Edison, has already completed the 500kW/1MWh battery storage system at Establishment Labs’ facilities. It is paired with a 276kW solar PV array.
Demand Energy worked with Rio Grande Renewables, a US-headquartered company with a track record of developing a handful of projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The microgrid provides multiple services, which include assisting the grid. Behind-the-meter it reduces peak demand and ‘smoothes’ out variable solar energy output for effective onsite self-consumption as well as being a source of backup power in the case of outages.
The microgrid, claimed to be the largest in Central America, runs on Demand Energy’s Distributed Energy Network Operating System (DEN.OS), which will also be used for the New York microgrid. It will enable Establishment Labs to cut power costs through peak power reduction while maintaining stability of supply – essential for the facility’s manufacturing processes. It will also enable Establishment Labs to reduce its reliance on diesel.
“The system eliminates the stranded costs of traditional diesel generators while offering a healthy return on investment through optimizing renewable solar generation, which drives a reduction in GHG emissions that supports Costa Rica’s goal to be the world’s first carbon-neutral country,” Shane Johnson, vice president of operations for Demand Energy said.
“This new generation of microgrid technologies is a game-changer in the region,” Rio Grande Renewables’ president Brian J Schmidly said.
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