Written by Gary Nelson, Senior Product Manager- Device Connections
When you think about energy storage what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
I would guess that your first thought will be about batteries as we are all familiar with what they do for us in our everyday lives whether for our TV remote controls, smoke detectors or re-chargeable devices. I suspect, however, that none of us ever expected to see them being used to supply us with power for our cars and electricity for our homes.
With renewable energy becoming a more commonly used source of power generation the need to store energy, excess energy from wind turbines and solar farms, has never been more relevant than it is today. If you have an all electric vehicle you will be familiar with the low costs associated with charging them compared to using petrol or diesel. In the modern sustainable home, you’ll find solar panels on the roof and a domestic battery storage device keeping the energy available for you to charge your car fully from the sun. If you have excess stored energy you can sell it to the energy companies and be paid for what you’re not using. It’s not uncommon for these households to have a zero-carbon footprint with no fuel bills whatsoever and making money from the energy they are creating from natural resources.
With the world changing dramatically since the onslaught of Covid 19, we need to use renewable energy sources more as the place for fossil fuels in our future is not sustainable. The world’s leaders are already looking towards a zero-carbon emission future with many banning the sale of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles within the next 10 years. At some point soon it will become more unusual to see a traditional ICE vehicle on our roads rather than seeing an all electric or hybrid one.
As a trusted manufacturer of innovative products Phoenix Contact is constantly developing new and future proof products to meet the demands of an all electric society. We are already well known for our products for electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure and we have now developed connectivity solutions for energy storage systems.
The product range for energy storage systems consists of touch-proof (even when not plugged in) device and cable battery pole connectors which are fully protected against polarity reversal with internal mechanical coding. The connectors are colour coded in orange and black to ensure a high degree of safety when connecting the battery terminals and can be rotated through a full 360°. The new product family is designed for conductor cross sections from 16 to 25 mm² and transmits nominal currents up to 120 A with nominal voltages up to 1500 V (DC).
For more information about our energy storage systems connectivity devices and the ways we are giving you the power to connect please visit our website.
