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Europe / Commercial & demonstration

Qinous Microgrid Demonstration Project

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

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations8
System facts23
Sources reviewed7
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The Qinous demonstrator was a containerized Berlin Schöneweide mini-grid test rig built in 2013–2014, not a renewable-powered customer site. It used a 150 kVA diesel generator, a 100 kW/112 kWh lithium-ion storage system, an added Aquion aqueous/saltwater battery, two 150 kVA converter-based load/PV simulators, and a Bachmann M1 controller. The often-listed '100 kW solar' and '100 kW wind' are adjustable simulated profiles, not installed PV panels or wind turbines; a later project directory's 130 kW combined-storage figure does not reconcile directly with the primary 100 kW/112 kWh baseline plus added Aquion unit.

Research status
The documented RLI control-development project ended December 31, 2014. Qinous later became a commercial storage/microgrid integrator; Rolls-Royce bought an initial stake in 2018, acquired a 73.1% majority in January 2020, and renamed the company Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin GmbH in June 2020 as its Microgrid Competence Center. Rolls-Royce separately commissioned a newer Microgrid Validation Center in Friedrichshafen in 2019. No current primary source confirms that the original Schöneweide container test rig, its Samsung battery, or its Aquion battery remains in service in 2026, so the asset status is historical demonstration / present physical disposition unknown.
Historical classification
Commercial
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
52.45719, 13.52779
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 Qinous Microgrid Demonstration Project?

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

Organization

Aquion

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

Organization

Aquion Energy

Supplier/manufacturer of the added aqueous hybrid-ion/saltwater battery technology. [3][4]

Organization

Bachmann electronic

Supplier of the M1 industrial controller used to interconnect and control the test rig. [3]

Organization

Qinous

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

Organization

Qinous GmbH

Original test-rig owner/developer, energy-storage integrator, battery-management and microgrid-control developer. [3][4]

Organization

Reiner Lemoine Institut (RLI)

Developer of the test rig's main control-system structure, automation/test sequences, and visualization during the 2013–2014 project. [3]

Organization

Rolls-Royce Power Systems / Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin GmbH

Corporate successor and majority owner; Qinous was renamed and expanded into the Berlin Microgrid Competence Center in 2020. [5][6]

Organization

Samsung SDI

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer identified in the legacy project directory; the primary RLI page confirms lithium storage but not the cell maker. [4]

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
100 [1]
KW Wind
100 [1]
Storage
130 kW Aquion Sodium Ion and Samsung Lithium Ion [1]
Test-rig scale
RLI describes a 100 kW/112 kWh lithium energy-storage system, 150 kVA diesel generator, and two 150 kVA inverter/converter simulators. The facility emulated a roughly 100 kW class off-grid mini-grid. [3]
Storage-rating conflict
The primary RLI project page gives 100 kW/112 kWh for the lithium system and says an Aquion saltwater battery was added without rating it. The legacy directory says '130 kW Aquion and Samsung storage' in aggregate. Because the boundaries differ and Aquion energy is missing, 130 kW should not be paired with 112 kWh as though it were one verified system. [3][4]
Simulated renewable/load channels
Two isolated frequency-converter/inverter channels create adjustable consumer-load and renewable-generation profiles. Directory labels of 100 kW solar and 100 kW wind represent emulation capability, not physical renewable nameplate. [3][4]
Diesel generation
150 kVA conventional diesel generator used for diesel-parallel, diesel-off, start/stop, and transition testing; manufacturer/model and fuel-consumption performance are not public. [3][4]
Energy mix
Not meaningful as an annual production mix: this was a lab/test installation whose load and renewable feed were synthesized. Diesel consumed real fuel during applicable tests and batteries exchanged energy, but no annual kWh or renewable fraction is reported. [3]

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

Lithium-ion battery energy storage

Samsung SDI (legacy-directory attribution)

Primary project rating 100 kW/112 kWh; exact Qinous enclosure, cell, rack, and inverter model not established by the sources reviewed. [3][4]

02

Aqueous/saltwater battery

Aquion Energy

Added as a second chemistry for single and parallel battery-operation tests; separate kW/kWh and product model are not published in the primary RLI project page. [3][4]

03

Industrial controller

Bachmann electronic — M1

Connects and controls the overall rig; Matlab/Simulink and M-PLC coordinate communications and automated tests, with a webMI graphical interface. [3]

04

Diesel generator

Model not publicly disclosed

150 kVA set used to reproduce conventional off-grid operation and diesel/battery transitions; make/model not disclosed. [3]

05

Grid/load emulation

Model not publicly disclosed

Load and PV/renewable simulators implemented with 150 kVA inverters/converters, allowing real or synthetic profiles, disturbances, grid faults, and short-circuit behavior to be tested. [3][4]

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.

  • General

    The QINOUS micro-grid demonstrator and test facility represents a typical layout of a real 100 kW micro-grid. [1]

  • General

    One converter is used to simulate the consumer load profile. [1]

  • General

    The other converter is used to simulate the renewable energy feed-in load profile (e.g. wind or solar). [1]

  • General

    Two battery systems are installed to test the behavior of the different technologies in single and in parallel operation of the batteries during such diesel operations. [1]

  • General

    Grid faults and short-circuit behavior are also simulated to test the energy storage solution’s response to critical events. [1]

  • Test scenarios

    RLI developed automated sequences for diesel-only load service, renewable-plus-battery integration, and complete diesel-off operation, using representative remote-region or synthetic load/generation curves. [3]

  • Control objective

    The battery/control system was intended to displace diesel operation while maintaining frequency stability, and to test battery-inverter behavior during parallel operation, transitions, faults, and short circuits. [3][4]

  • Corporate timeline

    Rolls-Royce took a strategic stake in 2018, announced a 73.1% majority in January 2020, and renamed Qinous to Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin in June 2020. The successor business reported more than 50 storage/microgrid projects worldwide, but that portfolio count is not the operating history of this one rig. [5][6]

  • Separate validation facility

    Rolls-Royce's 2019 Friedrichshafen Microgrid Validation Center—with a separate plant microgrid, 500 kWp PV, gas and diesel generators, and an MTU battery—is not the Qinous Berlin demonstrator and must not be merged into its nameplate. [7]

  • Current-data gap

    No current owner source states whether the Schöneweide rig was relocated, dismantled, upgraded, or retained after the corporate integration. Aquion's later corporate history alone is not proof that its installed test battery was removed. [3][6]

Provenance

7 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 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Read More from Qinous

    qinous.de · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
    Development of Control System for a Mini-Grid Test Rig

    Reiner Lemoine Institut · Primary source

  4. [4]
    Qinous Microgrid Demonstration Project

    MicrogridProjects.com · Secondary research

  5. [5]
  6. [6]
  7. [7]

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