Articles on battery storage, solar PV and grid connection design

Articles from the practice of an engineering office: battery storage, solar PV plants, transformer stations, grid connection and lightning protection.

• 27 October 2026How to connect battery storage to the distribution grid – step by stepGrid connection decides whether the storage project happens at all. The grid operator decides – but how well the application is prepared and how quickly the design takes its conditions on board is up to you.
• 27 October 2026What a commercial solar PV design includes and what drives its priceA solar plant on a factory roof is not “panels and an inverter”. It is a generating installation with a grid connection, fire safety and roof structure – and the design is what turns it into a building that can be permitted, built and connected.
• 27 October 2026Permit documentation for battery storage: what the authorities look forBattery storage is a building and needs a permit. The permit documentation has a fixed structure – and the building authority and the concerned bodies look for specific things in it.
• 27 October 2026Kiosk transformer station: when you need one and what the design involvesAbove a certain power a low-voltage connection is no longer enough and the grid operator requires a medium-voltage connection. Then you need your own transformer station – usually a kiosk one.
• 27 October 2026Lightning protection for solar PV: when it is required and how the risk is calculatedPanels on a roof change the situation even where a lightning protection system already exists. Whether protection is required is decided by a risk calculation – and that has clear rules.
• 27 October 2026Site check: 5 things that decide before you start designingBefore the first crown goes into a design, public sources show what stands in the project's way. Five things decide whether it makes sense to continue.