France’s Imeon launches AI-powered home solar-plus-storage system

French solar-plus-storage business Imeon Energy has showcased its Neo smart, connected hybrid inverter with integrated storage at the BePositive trade show in Lyon.

The Neo range, aimed at residential users, features an energy management system which enables real-time optimization of solar energy generation and consumption. The product comes in five sizes, with single-phase power outputs ranging from 3 kW to 6 kW. Neo can manage solar arrays of 2 kWp to 9 kWp in scale.

The new system uses Imeon’s predictive learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to constantly arbitrate battery management based on weather forecasts and user consumption habits, optimizing energy use.

The result, according to Imeon, is 50% to 100% more electricity self consumption than is offered by solar arrays without a battery.

With the feed-in tariffs paid by state-owned utility EDF for solar electricity exported to the grid set to reduce, Imeon CEO Christophe Goasguen told pv magazine France, “The arrival of our new Neo solar energy storage system comes at the right time to encourage self-consumption and lower the cost, per kilowatt-hour, of electricity.”

Neo offers users the choice of incorporating electric vehicle charging or a heat pump.

The AI system also extends battery life, said Goasguen, whose company is exhibiting at BePositive for the first time.

“Batteries don’t like charging too quickly or charging too deeply, such as going from 0% to 100% charge in one go,” said the CEO. “Our system, therefore, allows us to optimally smooth out the battery’s charge throughout the day, which extends [battery] lifespan by around 50%, up to 20 to 25 years.”

From pv magazine France.