It's a fascinating plan, at the cutting edge of innovation: to supply a whole island completely with regenerative solar power and wind power. For Graciosa in the Archipelago of the Azores, this vision will soon be a reality. Younicos, a Berlin-based company, is supervising the installation of a photovoltaic plant, a wind park and battery storage to make the island independent of diesel supplies delivered by a tanker.
The preparations began in 2010, on a test site in Berlin. For two years, this was where Younicos tested the power supply concept and developed, tested and optimized various control strategies for the battery storage. dSPACE provided the hardware for the control of the battery converters and for simulating the wind strength and solar radiation (see dSPACE Magazine 1/2010,
New Energy – Wind and Sun Bring Independence).
In August 2012, Younicos and the local power supplier signed agreements on power input to the electricity grid and on the price of the electricity – the commercial base of the project. The construction of the photovoltaic plant, wind park and battery storage is expected to be completed at the end of 2014, when the entire system will go into operation.