With almost 100 megawatt of storage installations worldwide and more than four gigawatts of qualified orders in the pipeline over the next four years, James P. McDougall, CEO of Younicos, is at the helm of a phenomenally successful organisation. We asked the inspirational American to tell us more about the company, its proven technologies and his ambitious plans for the future.
PES: Welcome to PES. Would you like to introduce the company and tell us a little about how you serve the PV sector?
James P. McDougall: Younicos is a global leader for intelligent storage and grid solutions. We provide crucial technology that enables solar and wind power to take over base-load generation. Our highly intelligent software and controls integrate batteries into any grid thus paving the way for the integration of more renewables.
Our company was founded by pioneers from the solar industry in Berlin, Germany who recognised this problem already in 2005 and began to look at storage as way to integrate more renewables into the grid.
Unfortunately, grids today can only handle an annual share of 20-30 percent renewables. That’s because the traditional energy architecture still relies on big thermal generators to provide critical system services such as frequency regulation and voltage control. In return these units have to be online at all times – thus blocking most of the ‘space’ on the grid for renewables.
Our solutions provide critical system services faster, more accurately and more cheaply than traditional grid assets, and thus allow thermal generators to be taken offline when enough solar or wind energy is available. Additionally our solutions increase reliability and resilience by providing real time back up power and black start capability for local grids. In short: we increase efficiency and security while we decrease emissions.
