Europe / Commercial & demonstration

Kythnos Microgrid

Organizations, planners, suppliers, equipment, controls, and reported system specifications—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations10
System facts17
Sources reviewed4
Last researched2026-07-19

Kythnos hosted successive island-grid and remote-bay demonstrations that helped establish AC-coupled hybrid microgrids. SMA's technical case study identifies the utility and research partners, the automatic controls, turbine and diesel models, storage ratings, and Sunny Island grid-forming architecture.

Research status
Historical operating demonstrations; present configuration not independently confirmed
Historical classification
Island
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
37.39086, 24.39639
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.

Project delivery

Who was involved in Kythnos Microgrid?

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

Organization

European Commission

PV-Mode and MORE project funder [4]

Organization

German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology

Project funder [4]

Organization

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Project funder [4]

Organization

ISET e.V.

Sunny Island development partner [4]

Organization

MAN

Early wind-project partner [4]

Organization

MWM

Diesel-engine supplier [4]

Organization

Public Power Corporation of Greece (PPC)

Island utility and wind-project partner [4]

Organization

SMA Solar Technology

Automatic control system, PV inverter, and battery-inverter supplier [4]

Organization

University of Kassel

Research and technology-development partner [4]

Organization

Vestas

500 kW wind-turbine supplier [4]

System evidence

Reported capacity and specifications

Values can describe different project phases or components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
10 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel
53 [1]
Storage
32 KWH [1]
Whole-island PV
100 kWp [4]
Whole-island wind
500 kW Vestas V39/500 [4]
Whole-island battery
Approximately 400 kWh; 500 kW for 10 minutes [4]
Whole-island diesel
Five 400 kW MWM 12-cylinder turbo-diesel sets [4]
Remote-bay microgrid
10 kW PV, nominal 53 kWh battery, and 5 kW diesel generator [1]

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

Whole-island control system

SMA

Fully automatic 1998 control system coordinating diesel starts/stops, wind, PV, battery conversion, phase shifting, and fast load control. [4]

02

Grid-forming battery inverter

SMA — Sunny Island

Central grid master for the 2001 modular AC-coupled PV-battery and PV-battery-diesel systems. [4]

03

Wind turbine

Vestas — V39/500

500 kW turbine installed in 1998. [4]

04

Diesel engines

MWM

Five 12-cylinder turbo-diesel sets rated 400 kW each. [4]

Recovered detail

Additional technical notes

Concise system facts recovered from the historical project record. Treat these as historical unless a newer primary source confirms them.

  • General

    Assets: Solar, Storage [1]

  • General

    It is a small village scale autonomous microgrid, composed of a 3-phase low-voltage network, solar PV generation, battery storage, and a backup generator. [1]

  • General

    There are 10 kW of PV at two locations, a nominal 53 kWh battery bank, and a 5 kW diesel genset. [1]

  • General

    When power is demanded by customers than the PV systems can directly provide, one or of the 3.6 kW battery inverters is activated. [1]

  • General

    The battery inverters can operate in isochronous or droop mode. [1]

Provenance

4 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 2021-02-27

  2. [2]
    Read More

    microgrids.eu · Archived source · captured 2021-02-27

  3. [3]
    Read More

    china.lbl.gov · Archived source · captured 2021-02-27

  4. [4]