Hybrid Project in Caribbean: St. Eustatius

Large-Scale Island Electrification, St. Eustatius SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) and its subsidiary SMA Sunbelt Energy GmbH have commissioned a PV Hybrid System on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands, to completely electrify the island with the smart combination of utility scale PV, battery storage and diesel generators. Up until March 2016 the island´s power supply was fully based on diesel gensets. By integrating 1,9 MWp of PV power and 1 MW of batteries with the SMA Fuel Save Controller 2.0, the local utility company is now able to reduce its fossil fuel consumption significantly by up to 30 percent and save more than 800.000 liters of diesel fuel and 2,200 tons of CO2 per year. In 2010, St. Eustatius became a special municipality of the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs decided to make the island and the Statia Utility Company (STUCO) less dependent on imported fossil fuel oils by financing a solar power plant. “We were looking for fossil fuel reduction and at the same time for a solution with both very low maintenance and also stand-alone operation,” Fred Cuvalay, CEO of STUCO, summarized the technical challenges. “SMA provided a hybrid system solution exactly tailored to our needs, which is extremely user-friendly.” See video or reference page for more details: https://youtu.be/0GlIRl8BHXo https://www.sma.de/en/products/references/st-eustatius-caribbean.html