Solar panels: shuffling the deck in energy production?

If the gains associated with these solutions are already extremely significant, Ricq Architecte's collaboration with the R2D2 home automation workshop on these new issues. The result of this work, in addition to providing substantial savings, profoundly reshuffles the deck between consumers and the sector's traditional players, thanks to intelligent energy management.

The challenge

Energy autonomy is a constant concern for Ricq Architectes. This is reflected in the installation of solar panels. However, the storage of the energy produced using batteries is not yet a mature and financially attractive solution, even if ongoing technical progress will certainly ensure a bright future for this solution. So, for the time being, it is important to have an intelligent management system that can juggle, according to immediate needs, between use or resale of solar energy produced by the building and consumption of electricity supplied by institutional players, such as Geneva's Service Industriel. This is made possible by the RCP (Regroupement des Consommations Propres) management system developed by the R2D2 workshop.

Practically

This solution requires the maintenance of a global meter for the building. In addition to this meter, which is the property of SIG, R2D2 meters are installed on the premises of each building occupant. These are METAS-certified and, depending on the case, either leased or sold. Connected via a VPN tunnel to a central computer, they enable the consumption of each dwelling to be measured via a remote reading system, whether the electricity is supplied by the local producer or produced by the building's photovoltaic panels. This enables personalized monthly invoices to be drawn up easily and accurately. Finally, thanks to an LED system, each occupant is informed in real time of the origin of the energy being used, for better cost management.

A virtuous system

This agile ROI management principle delivers substantial benefits for all parties involved. Firstly, when occupants use the solar energy generated by the building, the price per kWH is lower than that otherwise charged by GIS. In addition, when the building is not in use by residents, the photovoltaic energy produced by the building, which cannot currently be stored efficiently and profitably, is sold back to GIS at an advantageous rate. As an indication, the price at which SIG takes back solar energy is currently 14.27 cts/kWH. This new way of managing ROI is a virtuous system that can also be applied to the management of gas, heating and hot water consumption.