Qinous and Rolls-Royce. Expansion in microgrid market

Rolls-Royce invests in start-up Qinous

Qinous, MTU and microgrid, a technological connection encouraged by the Friedrichshafen company expertise. Qinous is a Berlin-based start-up company global provider of innovative energy storage and control systems.

«As a strategic investor, the aim is to set up a partnership with Qinous for the development of innovative energy storage solutions and together offer cleaner solutions designed to meet tomorrow’s needs» explained Marcus A. Wassenberg, CFO and Labor Director at Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Reliable energy

The increased use of renewable energies has exacerbated the challenge of how to maintain a reliable energy supply, when weather conditions are unfavourable, to meet demand. Autonomous electricity networks, or microgrids, combine cogeneration plants, diesel- and gas-powered gensets and renewable sources with batteries and a control system that links up all the elements to optimize the energy usage.

Qinous has gained considerable experience in the integration of battery storage and energy systems in microgrids in more than 30 projects worldwide and has already integrated MTU Onsite Energy systems from Rolls-Royce in such projects.

Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, added: «In addition to the diesel and gas gensets supplied by MTU Onsite Energy, together with our partners like Qinous we will now offer battery containers, include renewable power generation plants, and combine that with intelligent control».

ANDREAS SCHELL, MTU AND DIGITALIZATION

Maintain energy availability

Microgrids can achieve energy availability (even with averse weather conditions) by combining generation with batteries and a control system in an intelligent energy management system. Rolls-Royce already provides MTU diesel and gas gensets for use in microgrids, and will soon be able to provide full turnkey microgrid solutions.

«Microgrids combine clean and cost-effective renewable energies with our reliable generator sets and are thus the future of the power industry» said Alexander Patt, Project leader of Microgrid solutions at Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Microgrids can supply energy completely autonomously to remote locations, such as mining operations or islands that have no access to a public grid. The most crucial component of a microgrid is an intelligent control system, which determines what power sources are to be used at what time in order to supply energy to the end user or top-up the battery system. This is done in accordance with the customer’s preference.

About Qinous

Qinous is a system integrator of smart plug & play energy storage solutions. Equipped with an integrated microgrid and energy management system, Qinous is suited to both on- and off-grid applications with a range of thirty kilowatts to several megawatts. The Qinous team offers more than 40 years of combined experience in the design and project management of energy systems, and more than 10 years of combined experience in the application engineering of battery storage systems.