Sunny Island: Set Up a Stand-Alone Grid in 8 Steps

This screencast demonstrates how to configure a stand-alone grid with Sunny Island in only eight steps. Thanks to the integrated web interface, commissioning can be performed easily using a smartphone, tablet or–more conventionally–a PC. Jan Roessler, trainer at the SMA Solar Academy, provides handy tips and tricks on the settings required for storage systems in off-grid operation.

 

Sunny Island: Set Up a Stand-Alone Grid in Only Eight Steps

 

 

This article was published in 2017. As we are constantly developing our solutions, there may be newer or additional options for the tips and techniques in this article.

29 Comments
  1. John Kennedy
    John Kennedy says:

    ^^^^^i would like to know the same, why is not possible single phase use more than one suny island 8.0 ?

    Reply
  2. Mark Tinka
    Mark Tinka says:

    Greetings.

    I’d like to get a better technical understanding of why it is not possible to connect more than one Sunny Island in parallel in a grid-tied deployment on a single-phase commercial power system. Thanks.

    Reply
  3. Dave Recklies
    Dave Recklies says:

    Hi, have a sunny island and lg chem with mppts running at 48volt. Can i set up over wifi and not use the remote control?
    Thanks
    Dave

    Reply
  4. MuhammadLouqman
    MuhammadLouqman says:

    Hello, I want to have standalone system of 6 kw system and 6 kWh backup provided PV power of 6kw. Let me clarify, sunny boy 6.0, sunny boy storage and battery of my choice right ?

    Reply
  5. Sushan Acharya
    Sushan Acharya says:

    In my system I have a generator used for backup only. This generator is signalled by Sunny Island. The challenge is that I don’t want the generator to operate after 8 pm. How do I accomplish this? Is there some feature on Sunny Island that can be helpful on this case?

    Reply
    • Carolyn Schlosser
      Carolyn Schlosser says:

      Hi Sushan,

      It is possible to increase the SOC limits to avoid to start the generator too early but if the SOC limit given is reached, the SI will start the generator (just because it is priority is to protect the battery). What would be best is to be sure that at 8p.m. the battery is fully charged. In this way the system can work on battery the complete night. It also depends of the loads/energy demand and battery capacity.

      Sunny regards,
      Carolyn

      Reply
  6. Kurnia
    Kurnia says:

    Hi,
    how many maximum operation parallel Sunny island for 1 phase system ? can we set up 6 sunny island 8.0 for 1 phase system without MC box 6.3?

    Reply
    • Carolyn Schlosser
      Carolyn Schlosser says:

      Hello Kurnia,

      In On-Grid applications for self-consumption with Sunny Island it isn`t possible to use more than one device in parallel if you have a single phase system.
      In Off-Grid Systems you could use three devices in parallel as a single phase System. But then all three devices use the same battery.

      Sunny regards,
      Carolyn

      Reply
      • Salim Abdo
        Salim Abdo says:

        Hello Carolyn,

        We purchased two SI 8.0 and three SB5.0 to be installed as a flexible storage system single phase on grid and we based this design on a simulation that we did on sunny design web where there was nothing that said that it does not work. Based on what you mentioned above it seems that this does not work! Is there any work around that?

  7. Kurnia
    Kurnia says:

    Hi,
    I wanna build on-grid system for workshop with 2 sunny island 8 (1 phase system).
    is it possible operation parallel with 2 master SI 8? we are using 2 battery with different type LI-ion and Lead acid ? what maximum number for operation parallel SI for 1 phase system?

    Reply
    • Carolyn Schlosser
      Carolyn Schlosser says:

      Hello Kurnia,

      In On-Grid applications for self-consumption with Sunny Island it isn`t possible to use more than one device in parallel if you have a single phase system.
      You could use one device as master device on one phase or a three phase system with three Sunny Islands.

      Sunny regards,
      Carolyn

      Reply
  8. Badru Bakari
    Badru Bakari says:

    Hi
    Is it possible to set up the Sunny Island without the use of a sunny Boy?

    Also, does the Sunny Island support lifepo4 batteries and where can i find a list of supported battery manufacturers?

    Badru

    Reply
    • Carolyn Schlosser
      Carolyn Schlosser says:

      Hello Badru,

      referring to your inquiry I need to inform that running Sunny Island Systems without DC-Source (repective Solar Inverter Sunny Boy) isn`t possible at all. Please find a list of compatible Akkus-/Batteries by following these link.
      https://files.sma.de/dl/7910/SI_LiIon-TI-en-41.pdf
      Thank`s for your comprehension.

      Kind regards,
      Carolyn

      Reply
      • Tarek
        Tarek says:

        Hello,
        Is it possible to use the Sunny Island with a pv inverter which is not from SMA brandt (Solar Inverter Sunny Boy) ?
        Tarek

      • SMA Solar
        SMA Solar says:

        Hello Tarek,
        it is, but we don’t recommend it and can’t support other products.

        Sunny regards!

  9. Jarle Johannessen
    Jarle Johannessen says:

    I have a small stand alone off grid system at my cottage.
    With 1500w PV panels with external MPPT regulator, this is hooked up to a battery package from a Mitsubishi I-Miev, which is reconfigured to 48V and watched by a REC-BMS SI, which is communicaating with the SI.
    What do I need to get my SI4.4-11M to communicate with the sunny portal web interface?
    I have the Sunny Remote Control.

    Reply
  10. Desmet Jarno
    Desmet Jarno says:

    Hello,

    I want to set up a stand-alone system off-grid. I have one Sunny Island 8.0h and two Sunny Boy 5.0 and a battery bank with VRLA batterys with 120kwh.

    Question; if the batteries are fully charged, and there are no loads applied, and the PV installation with the Sunny Boys is still producing energy, what will happen with this engery?

    Thanks Jarno.

    Reply
    • Annika Linke
      Annika Linke says:

      Hi Julio,
      Referring to your inquiry, I just need to know what typ of devices need to be setup for Split-Phase arrangements 60Hz?
      Please do providing inverters Serialnumber. Better direct your query then to serviceline-international@sma.de
      Best regards, Annika

      Reply
  11. Benno Smith
    Benno Smith says:

    Is iot possible to set up a Sunny Island – 11 6.0H thjat is equipped with an ethernet card in this way? or is there an application the
    at is needed to do this?

    Reply
    • Benno
      Benno says:

      Correction to the above:

      Is it possible to set up a Sunny Island – 11 6.0H that is equipped with an ethernet card via Sunny Explorer in this way?
      Or is there an additional application that is needed to do this?

      Reply
      • Annika Linke
        Annika Linke says:

        Hello Benno,
        to set up a Sunny Island 6.0H-11 you need the additional Sunny Remote Control. Without the Sunny Remote Control it is not possible to set up the System.
        Cheers, Annika

      • Raymond
        Raymond says:

        Do you mean this post only for SI 8 only? What about using combined SI 8 and SI 6 in a cluster?

      • Carolyn Schlosser
        Carolyn Schlosser says:

        Hi Raymond,

        you can combine the Sunny Island 6.0 H with the Sunny Island 6.0 H. If you are interested in using Sunny Island 6.0 H and Sunny Island 8.0 H combined, you may read this file.

        Kind regards
        Carolyn

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