Solar energy has been on the rise because of different projects that are optimizing solar technology. One of these new projects is the solar microinverter. Enphase Energy is currently the leader in microiverter technology, they claim that their technology can increase energy harvest anywhere from five to twenty five percent. Enphase Energy has partnered with Main Street Power and Morgan Stanley to bring customers more efficient solar energy. Enphase Energy announced today that its microinverter technology will power 4.5 megawatts of solar projects developed and operated by Main Street Power and financed by Morgan Stanley. The Main Street project will sell energy generated to the San Diego Unified School District through a 20-year power purchase agreement. Main Street Power’s Senior vice president had a few words about the partnership. “We included Enphase in our proposal because it offered substantial cost savings in system design, operation and maintenance, while also increasing energy harvest and system reliability.”
The reasons that the solar sector is so excited about this new microinverter technology is because it lets the solar panel and therefore the solar energy work more efficiently and create more energy. The way these microinverters work is by using solar panels. These solar panels are connected in a series, so if one panel starts to fail or underperform because of different factors like shade or dirt falls on it, it drags down output of the entire system because the entire system produces one consistent current. What this means is that the solar panel works to the best of the worst panels ability. Therefore the weakest panel defines the total system’s output. Microinverters solve this problem because they can be attached to individual panels, allowing them to function separately from the series. What the microinverter does is it converts direct current or DC power that is produced by the solar panels into alternating current or AC power used by the object this solar panel is hooked up to. Some of the best microinverters can monitor, adjust, and maximize panels by using maximum power point tracking technologies. This technology lets people maximize their solar energy.
Panels that use solar optimization technologies are called smart panels. This is because they can react to panels that underperform and make adjustments to maximize energy production. These solar technologies are already limited in how much sunlight is converted to usable energy. What this means is that maximizing the output of usable energy along with bringing the cost down is the most important thing for the solar sector. Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge said “For solar energy to become truly mainstream among residential and commercial sites, installation and operating costs must come down, and energy harvest must go up.” This is why solar energy companies are teaming up with companies like Enphase Energy who make these Microinverters so they can maximize their profit and so they can create a bigger market share for themselves by lowering the cost of installation and fees and maximizing the energy the solar panels are producing.
In conclusion I feel that if the solar sector wants to get competitive with other types of energy companies, they are going to need to make their prices competitive and that is what the microinverter is doing. If this microinverter works well than I believe the Solar Sector can market their product to upper-middle class families especially women who try to care about the environment. This is what Toyota did with the Prius and they saw significant profits come out of this. I believe that the solar sector whatever the company maybe can do the same and maximize their profits as well as gain market share and more importantly compete with other energy sectors.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2010/10/11/11venturebeat-pimp-my-solar-panel-microinverter-activity-p-85649.html?ref=business-computing
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