AUSTIN, Texas, June 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ideal Power Inc., (NASDAQ:IPWR), an innovative power conversion technology company, Azimuth Energy, a solar and wind energy and energy efficiency engineering and construction company and Wright Architects, a design-build firm with projects along the East Coast and the Caribbean, today announced a solar-plus-storage project that will provide off-grid and virtually fossil-free power to a remote building complex in rural New York.
The companies believe that critical facilities such as military bases, hospitals, airports, and industrial facilities, as well as buildings in rural areas are logical choices for microgrids to allow these facilities to continue to operate during grid outages. For decades, one of the few backup power solutions has been the diesel generator, which carries a heavy environmental and economic footprint. But bringing power to remote communities and critical facilities through a combination of clean energy and energy storage is now a more economical solution. This is driven by the rapid decline in battery costs, which are predicted to fall by as much as 70 percent over the next 15 years, according to a recent report by DNV GL, PricewaterhouseCoopers and others.
Wright Architects, the project leader of a large sustainable energy retrofit project, performed an energy feasibility study of the facility and subsequently implemented several energy conservation strategies to allow for better energy management. Once the energy management goals were achieved and after discovering that the existing utility infrastructure would not reliably support the long term goals of the facility, a microgrid became the logical answer to enable the facility to meet its energy, sustainability, reliability and environmental goals as well as be grid independent. According to Andrew Wright, President of Wright Architects, “We searched the solar industry for the required microgrid and integration expertise and found Azimuth Energy to be an exceptional partner for this facility’s microgrid. We are excited to see it being implemented.”
“We designed our Stabiliti series power conversion systems to specifically address microgrid and backup power applications, efficiently integrating solar and storage in a compact, flexible, and easily deployed package,” said Dan Brdar, CEO of Ideal Power. “As awareness continues to grow around the increasingly affordable use of solar and energy storage based microgrids to displace the use of diesel fuel or mitigate the impact of grid outages, we believe that a growing number of projects like this one will come to fruition around the world. It’s the future of distributed power generation.”
Designed and installed by Azimuth Energy, the solar-plus-storage project will use a microgrid site controller, and include a leading worldwide battery manufacturer and supplier’s lithium-ion battery modules, providing approximately 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy storage capacity. The 300 kilowatt (kW) solar array will use Ideal Power’s Stabiliti™ 30 kW multiport power conversion system, a compact solution that efficiently enables bi-directional power flow between solar, storage and the microgrid, all in one box. The result will be an independent microgrid system that can provide fossil-free energy at a significantly reduced cost compared to traditional converter solutions.
“We are thrilled to lead this project, which brings together strong technologies in microgrid controls, energy storage, solar and power conversion to meet power quality and reliability challenges,” said Marc Lopata, President of Azimuth Energy. “Deploying sustainable power solutions to areas without the support of the grid requires complex engineering and the right systems to make it work. As we launch head-on into the age of solar-plus-storage, we look forward to growing our partnership with Ideal Power and expanding our innovation in microgrids and energy efficiency integration.”
About Ideal Power Inc.
Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) is a power conversion technology company that delivers efficient and compact solutions to system integrators and project developers to connect distributed energy resources to the grid. Ideal Power’s products offer enhanced performance for battery-enabled applications at a competitive cost, backed by first-rate customer service. With its patented power conversion technology, Ideal Power supports a broad set of growing markets, including solar photovoltaics, battery energy storage, mobile power and microgrids. For more information, visit www.IdealPower.com.
About Azimuth Energy
Azimuth Energy is an engineering, construction, and development-support services company focused on helping its clients improve the financial and environmental performance of their businesses. This means reducing their energy consumption and operating expenses, managing risk, improving their bottom line and the value of their property investment. Azimuth is expert at innovative and creative solutions for renewable energy, advanced technology microgrids, and energy efficiency integration. Originally founded in 2009, the Azimuth team has construction, energy, and renewable deployment experience dating back to the early 1990s. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, with five offices in the Caribbean, Azimuth has a strong team of experts who have engineered and constructed over 500 PV projects and 80 energy storage plants in the U.S. and overseas. For more information, visit azimuth.energy.
About Wright Architects
Wright Architects is a Design-Build firm with projects along the East Coast and the Caribbean. A team made of Architects, Sustainable Designers and Construction Managers who understand the importance of aesthetics, budgets, timing and how all the design principles should be evaluated with a sustainable approach in mind. For over 30 years, Wright Architects has implemented sustainable strategies to reduce energy consumption while utilizing the latest technology advances in the industry all to achieve monitored and integrated systems such as geothermal, solar thermal, and solar PV to offset electric consumption. www.wrightarchitectspllc.com
Safe Harbor Statement
All statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. While management has based any forward looking statements included in this release on its current expectations, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control that could cause actual results to materially differ from such statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, but are not limited to, our expectations with respect to expanding our partnership with Azimuth Energy, whether our Stabiliti series power conversion systems will be successful, whether the patents for our technology provide adequate protection and whether we can be successful in maintaining, enforcing and defending our patents, whether a demand for energy storage products will grow, whether demand for our products, which we believe are disruptive, will develop and whether we can compete successfully with other manufacturers and suppliers of energy conversion products, both now and in the future, as new products are developed and marketed. Furthermore, we operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment where new and unanticipated risks may arise. Accordingly, investors should not place any reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. We disclaim any intention to, and undertake no obligation to, update or revise forward-looking statements.