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Latin America & Caribbean / Island & remote community

Islas Secas Island Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations6
System facts21
Sources reviewed5
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Islas Secas is an off-grid resort microgrid in Panama's Gulf of Chiriquí built around a 355 kW PV array, advanced lead batteries, SMA inverters, and two 200 kW diesel backup generators. The battery system began with 18 East Penn stacks and was later augmented by nine GS Yuasa stacks under a Nuvation BMS/energy controller. The most detailed battery case study reports 2.1 MWh and 162 kW after augmentation. This is a solar-dominant hybrid system, not literally diesel-free: the resort now markets 100% of property electricity as solar-generated, while the engineering record retains diesel standby and the original design estimate was 90% solar/battery energy.

Research status
Operating as the resort's island power system. Islas Secas' 2025 factsheet continues to state that 100% of property electricity is generated by renewable solar, and current Nuvation and Consortium for Battery Innovation pages continue to feature the installation. No audited recent generation, diesel-run-hour, fuel-use, battery-availability, or outage dataset was found, so the current 100% statement is treated as a resort claim about electricity generation rather than proof that backup generators never run.
Historical classification
Commercial
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
7.97653, -82.02845
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Islas Secas Island Microgrid?

6 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Civic Solar

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

CivicSolar

System designer/integrator for the original hybrid solar project and storage augmentation. [3][4][2]

Organization

East Penn Manufacturing and GS Yuasa

Supplied the original Deka Unigy II and augmentation SRL 1000 advanced-lead battery stacks, respectively. [4]

Organization

Islas Secas

Resort owner/operator and microgrid host; publishes the current sustainability claim. [5][2]

Organization

Nuvation Energy

Supplied replacement battery-management systems, the multi-bank ESS controller, and controls for the later storage augmentation. [2][4]

Organization

SMA Solar Technology

Supplied Sunny Tripower PV inverters and Sunny Island battery inverters. [3]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
355 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel
200 [1]
Solar PV
355 kW published system rating, with estimated production of 500,000 kWh/year in SMA's 2019 case account [3][2]
PV modules
1,400 Jinko 270 W polycrystalline 60-cell modules; their 378 kWp arithmetic nameplate exceeds the separately published 355 kW system rating, likely reflecting a DC-versus-system-rating convention that the sources do not explain [3]
Storage after augmentation
2.1 MWh and 162 kW in the Consortium for Battery Innovation technical summary; Nuvation separately describes an existing 1.5 MWh system plus an additional 500 kWh, so public rounded totals differ by about 0.1 MWh [4][2]
Battery architecture
27 nominal-48 V lead-battery banks/stacks: 18 East Penn Deka Unigy II stacks plus nine GS Yuasa SRL 1000 stacks [4][2]
Backup generation
Two 200 kW diesel generator sets, 400 kW aggregate [2]
Inverter count
18 SMA Sunny Tripower solar inverters and 36 SMA Sunny Island battery inverters [3]
Renewable-energy claim
Original engineering publicity estimated PV plus batteries would supply 90% of energy; the resort's 2025 factsheet says 100% of property electricity is generated by solar. Neither source publishes the accounting interval or diesel contribution behind the later claim. [3][5][2]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

PV modules

Jinko Solar — 270 W Poly 60-cell

1,400 modules installed beside the island airstrip. [3]

02

Power conversion

SMA Solar Technology — Sunny Tripower and Sunny Island

Eighteen PV inverters and 36 bidirectional battery inverters form the AC-coupled system. [3]

03

Battery storage

East Penn Manufacturing / GS Yuasa — Deka Unigy II / SRL 1000

Advanced lead batteries of different manufacturers, capacities, ages, and states of health are operated as one system by configurable Nuvation controls. [4]

04

Battery and plant controls

Nuvation Energy

Nuvation BMS units replaced the original BMS on the East Penn banks and were added to the GS Yuasa banks; a custom ESS controller coordinates all 27 banks and two diesel gensets. [4][2]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Management

    Under normal operation, the batteries and solar array should be able to supply 90% of all the energy needed by Islas Secas. [1]

  • Storage

    Similar to a plug-in Prius, the PV array (and batteries) power all the island’s systems, 365 days of the year. [1]

  • Generation

    Islas Secas is powered a 355kW PV array located next to the island’s air strip. [1]

  • Generation

    For heavy loads or unexpected bad weather, the system can call on two 200kW diesel generators at any time. [1]

  • Operating sequence

    PV serves island loads and charges storage during the day; at dusk, the resort normally transfers to silent battery operation. Diesel sets are available for heavy loads or prolonged cloudy periods. [3][2]

  • Storage augmentation

    The augmentation did not discard the original 18 stacks. Nuvation replaced their BMS, added nine new stacks, and programmed the EMS to prioritize cycling across banks with different charge/discharge profiles and states of health. [4]

  • Capacity reconciliation

    Use 355 kW as the repeatedly published plant rating while retaining 378 kWp as module arithmetic. For storage, preserve the 1.5 MWh original, approximately 0.5 MWh augmentation, and 2.1 MWh technical-summary values instead of forcing a false exact total. [3][4][2]

  • Evidence gap

    No reviewed source discloses commissioning date, hourly operating data, recent diesel use, battery replacement history after the GS Yuasa augmentation, or measured outage/reliability performance. [4][5]

Provenance

5 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  2. [2]
    Solar Energy Storage for Island

    Nuvation Energy · Primary source

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
    Nuvation Energy – Solar powered eco-resort in Panama

    Consortium for Battery Innovation · Primary source

  5. [5]
    Islas Secas General Factsheet

    Islas Secas · Primary source

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