Tesvolt of Germany has been awarded with the Hugo Junkers Prize for its intelligent battery management system. The commercial storage system manufacturer beat 42 other contenders.
Tesvolt won the award in the 'Most Innovative Product Development' category for its energy storage unit's high cell balancing efficiency of 92% and its long lifespan.
The award has been given by the Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitalization of the German State of Saxony-Anhalt for 25 years and carries a prize money of €90,000.
Prof. Mirko Peglow, Technical Director of the Pergande Group, who was on the judging panel said, "Tesvolt's battery management system significantly reduces the amount of energy lost during battery charging and discharging. The judges were also won over by Tesvolt's ambitious, young team. Thanks to its international storage projects, Tesvolt serves as a prime example of commercial success in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany and beyond."
Tesvolt's active bidirectional battery management system monitors the condition of cells in order to prevent damage early on. This involves permanently tracking temperature, voltage and state of charge of each individual cell. As a result of these measures, Tesvolt says its battery storage systems have a lifespan of around 20 years and a depth of discharge of 90%.
Tesvolt explained, "By controlling every single cell, Tesvolt's battery management system distributes stored energy more efficiently and quickly between the cells than conventional passive or unidirectional cell control equipment. This leads to a very high efficiency rating of 92 percent when balancing energy between the cells."
Tesvolt is a Germany-based battery start-up, which launched operations in 2015. It is named after inventors Nikola Tesla and Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery, develops and produces flexible battery storage systems with high capacities. TESVOLT offers products with its strategic partners, for example SMA Solar Technology AG, and focuses primarily on quality "Made in Germany". The energy storage systems are produced at its German site with an annual production capacity of 20 MWh, and the battery systems are also assembled in Germany.
In June Tesvolt won a contract to supply what it calls the world's largest decentralized off-grid storage system in Rwanda's Eastern Province. The lithium storage system has a total capacity of 2.68 MWh and was planned to act as a mini-grid during power cuts, providing water pumps in an agricultural project with emergency power. The storage system is combined with a 3.3 MW solar power plant.