Austin, TX: Ideal Power Inc., a developer of power conversion technologies, announced December having received a 360kW purchase order from KACO new energy (KACO) to supply its 3-port, grid-resilient 30kW Power Conversion Systems (PCS) for the Living Energy Project at the Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Centre in Alberta.
Ideal Power will supply the power conversion systems and KACO will provide the system integration and installation. The Living Energy Project will use solar PV with trackers, energy storage, a wind turbine mounted atop a purpose-built oil derrick, and a natural gas-fueled cogeneration unit to capture geothermal energy from an abandoned oil well. The PCS' single AC plus dual DC power ports will enable the integration of solar and energy storage utilizing single inverters at the Living Energy Project.
For integration of solar with energy storage, Ideal Power's embedded power management algorithms deliver PV smoothing and PV firming for grid-tied applications and enable the deployment of high performance PV-based microgrids.
The Leduc No. 1 oil rig
The Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Centre is located just outside of Edmonton, Alberta, and is the site of the initial oil well that kick-started the province's entrance to the oil industry in 1947. The now abandoned well has been converted into an energy museum and 55-acre park focused on the demonstration of environmental technology. The renewables integration and geothermal conversion are part of a plan to turn Leduc #1 into the world's first carbon neutral oil museum.