Photovoltaic heat for agriculture

Near Munich, an AC•THOR 9s and a 9 kW screw-in heater have been in operation on the agricultural and commercial farm of the Lachmayr family since November 2021 to additionally heat the 2,000 liter buffer tank with the photovoltaic surplus. Additionally, because a connected combined heat and power plant (CHP) also heats this large buffer tank.

The control is done by a Q CELLS inverter, which SolaX produces. The my-PV products use the surplus information from the inverter, the control was implemented here for the first time by SolaX.

A lot of hot water is needed in agriculture - not only for the Lachmayr family's own consumption, but of course also for operational purposes. For this purpose, the owner installed a 16.6 kWp photovoltaic system, oriented to the south. Since the 9 kWh battery storage installed in the house cannot store the yields alone and feeding them into the public grid is now very unprofitable, the desire for an additional own use of the photovoltaic electricity was great: With the my-PV products, the water can simply be heated from the still existing photovoltaic surplus.

This also works in an existing building like this one. In the 2,000 liter buffer storage tank, the screw-in heating element simply releases the continuously controlled surplus and thus heats the water inside - cost-effectively and environmentally friendly from the power of the sun!

More details about this project can be found here.

And many more exciting references can be found here.