EnSync Energy Systems: EnSync’s distributed energy management successfully powers off-grid agricultural project in Hawaii

Contact:
Michelle Montague
262.735.5676

EnSync Energy Management System Integrates Solar and Aquion Energy Batteries to Provide Sustainable, Reliable and Cost-Effective Energy

EnSync, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ESNC), dba EnSync Energy Systems, a leading developer of innovative energy management systems serving the commercial, industrial and multi-tenant building markets, announces the ongoing successful operation of a distributed energy project utilizing EnSync’s energy management system integrated with solar PV and Aquion Energy’s Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI™) batteries to power an agricultural installation at Mari’s Garden in Mililani, Hawaii. Continually operating for more than four months, EnSync’s technology is providing power for water pumps critical to supporting 24/7 hydroponics and aquaponics fishery operations.

“EnSync provides an energy management system that is compatible with a range of battery technologies, as many applications are best served by hybrid storage configurations that provide for both power and energy applications,” said Dan Nordloh, Executive Vice President of EnSync Energy Systems. “For this particular application, requiring highly reliable energy over periods extending to 16 plus hours was critical, so the solution included EnSync’s advanced energy management system integrated with the Aquion Energy salt water battery.”

EnSync, project developer NIDON, and Aquion worked quickly from design through testing at EnSync’s facility, resulting in seamless integration of Aquion’s battery and EnSync’s advanced power controls. This fast tracked project was commissioned within one week of installation.

“Aquion continually seeks out innovative deployments in growing markets to prove the compatibility and integration of our products that offer true value to the customer,” said Matt Maroon, Vice President of Product Management at Aquion Energy. “This project partnership with EnSync has brought various opportunities to Aquion, and we’re thrilled the customer is experiencing the power performance we anticipated.”

Mari’s Garden is an agriculture-based business managing higher energy consumption due to aquaponics on site that combines growing plants hydroponically with growing fish through aquaculture. Sustainability is deeply important with farming methods that are organically certified and food safety certified. Because Mari’s Garden is located in Hawaii, they are faced with expensive electricity and vulnerability to power outages. Mari’s Garden sought out renewable energy generation that could seamlessly connect with energy storage, and supported their goal of being off-grid with sustainable, reliable power for their facility.

The EnSync system presently integrates 25 kilowatts of solar PV and 40 Aquion battery stacks for a total of 25 kilowatts/92 kilowatt-hours of energy storage. With this set up, EnSync’s power controls allow Mari’s Garden to store power generated from their PV system in Aquion batteries, and then discharge them for energy consumption at times valuable to their business operating completely off grid. The solar PV component is anticipated to increase to 75 kilowatts in early 2016.

“Agricultural settings such as Mari’s Garden are particularly mindful of electricity rates, and require reliable, sustainable power to meet their demands,” said Nick Dizon, the Hawaii-based project developer and owner of NIDON Clean Energy. “We evaluated various systems that were well-integrated to support an off-grid concept like Mari’s Garden, and the technology partnership of EnSync power controls, particularly their inverter technology, with Aquion’s battery has proved to be the right fit for this need.”