Brač island: Drinking in luxury

Take one private beach, crushed ice courtesy of solar powered battery energy, mix your cocktail of choice and relax…

That sounds good to me and power for the adjacent beach bar is all down to Victron Energy dealer Solar Projekt, from Split in Croatia. They carried out sales, project planning and installed the bar’s solar system – which is nearby the Hotel Lemongarden, located on Brač island in the Adriatic.

The image above is courtesy of Hotel Lemongarden

No ice without sun

7kWp of solar panels harvest the energy for the natural stone house beach bar.

Behind the scenes are:

• 1 x Victron Energy Quattro 48/8000/110-100/100 inverter/charger.
• 2 x Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 150/85-Tr solar charge controllers.
• 1 x Victron Energy BMV-700 series Battery Monitor.
• 2 x Victron Energy MPPT Control.
• 1 x 1000Ah/48V/C10 OPzS battery bank, shown below the cabinet in the photo below.
• 1 x Electrical cabinet with the BMV-700 and MPPT Controls let into the cabinet door. Inside the cabinet are the MPPT controllers and protection devices.

System operation

Whilst the hotel is connected to the grid, the beach bar location precludes that. However with the system above the bar now has power autonomy for 2 days and in case there are long periods of cloud cover there is a generator as backup. This is programmed to start automatically when the voltage in the battery bank reaches a set low point. Generator power is then available to the bar, whilst at the same time the battery bank is charged by the Quattro charger side of this combined inverter/charger. When the battery bank is full, the generator automatically switches off and the system continues to run on the battery solar system once again.

Conclusion

There would seem little point in having a bar in the sun without ice, but thanks to Victron Energy dealer Solar Projekt, the Hotel Lemongarden’s beach bar now has buckets of it.

My thanks to Boris Tudor of SOLAR PROJEKT d.o.o. for the information and photos in this blog.

John Rushworth

Links

• http://solarprojekt.hr/
• https://www.facebook.com/solarprojektdoo/