Battery system lets Limburg firm store its own solar power
InterOffice in Tongeren is the only company in Belgium that can use batteries to store the solar energy it generates during the day, to power its datacentre overnight
Innovative system
InterOffice, specialised in distributing office and school supplies, will run its Tongeren datacentre at night on the energy it generates during the day. “It annoyed me that during the day we generated energy that we had to hand over to the energy grid for a low price,” InterOffice owner Patrick Poncelet told De Standaard. “And in the night, I had to pay almost 10 times this price to keep the installations running.”
The new system makes the company the only one in Belgium with the choice to either use its energy itself or send it to the grid. “If more companies stored their generated energy, this would improve the stability of the grid and protect against energy problems,” Rudi Vandromme, head of We Are Smart, said to Het Belang van Limburg. “It will reduce the need for future investments in the energy distribution network and thus lead to lower electricity bills.”
Energy minister Bart Tommelein, who inaugurated the new system, said he believed strongly in decentralised energy production, in which companies and households generate more of their electricity themselves.
Photo courtesy Bart Tommelein
