UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has announced that it has renamed its 73.1%-owned German subsidiary company Qinous as Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin and upgraded it into a Microgrid Competence Centre. Qinous was a Berlin-based startup specialising in energy storage, which had established the reliability and functionality of microgrids in more than 50 projects, worldwide. Rolls-Royce acquired its predominant stake in the Berlin company in January. 

“With its solutions, our Microgrid Competence Centre in Berlin is making a major contribution to decarbonising energy systems and, with immediate effect, is now offering our customers a comprehensive solution portfolio,” reported Rolls-Royce Power Systems Division CEO Andreas Schell. “It ranges from simple storage solutions to complex microgrids that intelligently combine battery storage with renewable energies, and with diesel or gas gensets [generator sets].”

A microgrid is a local group of distributed electricity sources and loads (electricity consumers) that has clearly defined electrical boundaries, and which operates as a single controllable entity. A microgrid can be connected to a traditional large-scale grid (macrogrid) or operate completely independently, in what is called ‘island mode’.

“We are convinced that microgrids are among the optimum solutions for tomorrow’s environmentally friendly, high-efficiency power supply systems,” he affirmed. “With Qinous, we are expanding our microgrid expertise and combining the dynamics of a startup with the security and reliability of a large corporate group.”

“The microgrids complete our product and solution line-up for distributed power generation,” explained Rolls-Royce Power Generation business unit VP Andreas Görtz. “From battery storage and intelligent electronic control systems to diesel or gas gensets – we’re not merely a supplier of modules from the [Rolls-Royce] MTU product range, but rather we’re offering our customers tailor-made total solutions featuring things like solar and wind power generation.”

“Under the Rolls-Royce umbrella, we’re seeing new, previously unattainable opportunities opening up, helping us realise our vision of delivering sustainable, climate-friendly and environmentally friendly power supply solutions,” highlighted Qinous founder and Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin MD  and shareholder Steffen Heinrich. “We’re proud of having turned this startup into a competence centre for a global company, and are looking forward to using our knowledge and experience in battery storage to help fully-featured microgrids become a success.”