SMA’s residential energy storage solutions in Australia

SMA is one of the largest inverter manufacturers in the world and have more inverters installed in Australia than any other brand. The company currently offers two energy storage solutions in Australia: the DC-coupled Sunny Boy Smart Energy and the AC-coupled Sunny Island range.

Sunny Boy Smart Energy

SMA’s Sunny Boy Smart Energy is an award-winning, plug-and-play, battery-integrated PV inverter solution. Based on SMA’s popular Sunny Boy platform for residential solar systems, SMA claims that the Sunny Boy Smart Energy can help to increase solar self-consumption from 30% to about 50% for a home using about 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per day.

The Sunny Boy Smart Energy can function as an inverter for solar arrays up to 6.6 kilowatts (kW) in capacity and has an integrated DC-coupled 2 kWh lithium-ion battery with a built-in battery management system (BMS). The battery is supplied by leading storage manufacturer, LG Chem.

Since the unit was designed with the battery unit integrated and its electrical safety has been certified by an accredited 3^rd party laboratory, no specific knowledge about battery system design, installation and safety is required by installers. This helps guarantee to end-users the system is safe, functions correctly and battery capacity usage is maximised.

Key benefits:

• Simple, wall-mountable, PV inverter with integrated battery unit.
• Increases household solar self-consumption.
• Online monitoring and remote service capability through SMA’s Sunny Portal via included Webconnect.
• InterSolar 2013 award winner for the ‘Photovoltaics’ category.
• No on-site load analysis or battery system design required.
• Higher overall system efficiency due to DC-coupled Battery.

Key product details:

• Capacity range (for solar PV input): 3.6 kW – 6.6 kW
• Battery capacity: 2kWh usable capacity
• Battery type: Lithium-ion Polymer by LG Chem
• Download a spec sheet: Sunny Boy Smart Energy (PDF)

SMA Sunny Island

The Sunny Island range has traditionally been SMA’s battery inverter solution for the off-grid solar market. In recent years, however, the Sunny Island range has grown to also encompass grid-connected solar systems with battery backup functionality.

Sunny Island inverters are compatible with all lead-acid and many lithium-ion batteries from a range of manufacturers. Being an AC-coupled storage solution Sunny Islands can be either designed into a new solar-plus-storage system, or easily retrofitted onto an existing solar system.

The smaller two power classes of Sunny Island inverters (3.0M / 4.4M) are best suited for on-grid storage applications and can be integrated into PV systems between 2 – 13 kW capacity, in either a single and 3-phase configuration. For bigger PV systems requiring storage the larger two power classes (6.0H / 8.0H) are able to be installed with multiple units on each phase for PV system capacities up to 360 kW.

Key benefits:

• AC-coupled solution provides greater flexibility for installation and coupling location.
• Compatible with all lead-acid and many lithium-ion batteries.
• Online monitoring and remote service capability through SMA’s Sunny Portal via optional Speedwire card and Sunny Home Manager.
• Modular and flexible – can be designed into new-build solar-plus-storage systems or retrofitted onto existing solar-only systems.
• Maximise solar self-consumption, potentially achieving total energy independence while remaining connected to the grid.
• Battery backup functionality allows the lights to stay on even when the grid goes down (as long as there is battery capacity available).

Key product details:

• Capacity range (for solar PV input): 2 – 360kW
• Battery capacity: 3.0kWh – 5.76MWh
• Download a spec sheet for Sunny Island 3.0M / 4.4M (PDF)
• Download a spec sheet for Sunny Island 6.0H / 8.0H (PDF)
• Download list of Li-ion batteries approved to connect with Sunny Island (PDF)

SMA contact details:

Email: info@sma-australia.com.au

Phone: +61 (02) 9491 4200 / 1800 SMA AUS
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