Cleantech Roundup: SolarEdge, Tigo Energy, MIT, and more

Another week, another bunch of announcements! To stay up to date on what’s new, check out this latest cleantech product roundup:

Inverter partnership with installer

SolarEdge Technologies Inc. entered into a supply agreement with Sunrun, a U.S. provider of residential solar, battery storage, and energy services. Under the agreement, Sunrun will offer SolarEdge’s Energy Hub inverter for residential customers.

SolarEdge said it will help Sunrun support a residential energy ecosystem with integration of smart energy devices and optimized home energy management through its inverter. The companies said they are focused on expanding value to residential customers through products such as smart energy devices, battery storage, EV chargers, among others. More info available here.

Replacement dampers for PV trackers

ACE Controls introduced a line of replacement dampers for solar PV tracking systems, the SOL-28 Series. The company claimed the drop-in replacements offer the same quality as original equipment manufacturer dampers, with the same sizes and specifications.

The SOL-28 Series is designed to protect against the effects of vortex shedding and wind galloping during high-wind events. With products ranging in resistive forces up to 12,000 N and with lengths up to 44 inches, the SOL-28 Series dampers will absorb kinetic energy exerted by the wind and are designed to move according to the tracker’s natural frequency, typically between 0.8 to 1.2 Hz. More info available here.

Plug-and-play battery research

Engineers at Gridtential Energy Inc. and Electric Applications Inc. (EAI), supported by the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), are working to further develop quick and safe “plug and play” solar-powered energy storage systems.

Gridtential Energy created Silicon Joule, a bipolar battery technology that uses silicon wafers (similar to those in solar cells) in traditional lead batteries to reduce weight and achieve performance competitive with lithium-ion, but at a lower cost. The research project will combine Silicon Joule technology with the testing expertise of EAI to develop high-voltage reference batteries for behind-the-meter energy storage applications. More info available here.

Rapid shutdown integration

Module-level power electronics (MLPE) company Tigo Energy Inc. announced that Growatt, a grid-connected single-phase PV and energy storage system inverter provider, has joined the Tigo Enhanced program to bring rapid shutdown solutions to PV installers. Growatt’s single-phase hybrid inverters–the XH series–will integrate with Tigo Rapid Shutdown System (RSS) Transmitters.

Growatt’s XH series ranges in power capacity from 3.0 kW to 11.4 kW, and the products are battery-ready upon purchase or can be retrofitted in the future. Each inverter will display a Tigo Enhanced logo for customers to identify models that work out of the box with Tigo TS4-A-F and TS4-A-2F products. The inverters also have built-in 4G/Wifi or Wifi/LAN and are integrated into Growatt’s monitoring and mobile app. More info available here.

Silicon carbide MOSFET module

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corp. has launched MG800FXF2YMS3, a silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET module integrating newly developed dual channel SiC MOSFET chips with ratings of 3300V and 800A designed for industrial and renewable energy applications. Volume production will start in May.

To achieve a channel temperature of 175° C, the new product adopts an iXPLV (intelligent fleXible Package Low Voltage) package with silver sintering internal bonding technology and high mounting compatibility. The module is intended to meet the needs for high-efficiency, compact equipment such as converters and inverters for railway vehicles and renewable energy systems. More info available here.

Ceramic safety capacitors

Vishay Intertechnology Inc. introduced a series of surface-mount AC line rated ceramic disc safety capacitors that offer a Y1 rating of 500 VAC and 1500 VDC. Designed to withstand harsh, high humidity environments, the Vishay BCcomponents SMDY1 series devices offer capacitance up to 4.7 nF. The capacitors will be used for EMI/RFI filtering in power supplies, solar inverters, smart meters, and LED drivers. More info available here.

Power boost for EV charger

Beam Global announced a 12% increase in energy output from its EV ARC solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) charging system. The company said the EV ARC 2020 system now delivers up to 265 e-miles in a day, and that all three models of the transportable, off-grid EV charging system provide more range while unit pricing remains unchanged.

Beam said that its EV ARC systems can charge as many as six vehicles at a time and are suited to meet the need for ubiquitous charging infrastructure because they support any quality brand of EV charger. They may be deployed in minutes without construction, electrical work, or utility bills. More info available here.

Third-generation deep-cycle battery

KiloVault, a provider of residential and commercial renewable energy solutions, unveiled the third iteration of its HAB series of wall-mount energy storage systems. The company said the new HAB 7.5 V3 provides the same 7.5 kWh of storage, safety, and expandability of its predecessors and features several upgrades.

The HAB V3 has increased ventilation to improve performance and battery life in warmer climates. The unit is rated IP54 for dust and splash protection. The four vents can be swapped out with solid plates to meet the IP55 rating for water jet protection, allowing outdoor installation. The wiring panel of the HAB has been redesigned for improved serviceability, and larger integrated lift handles allow for easier wall-mounted installation. Each HAB contains a non-toxic, thermally stable LiFePO4 battery with UL1642-certified cells. More info available here.

Solar+storage Powur

Enphase Energy Inc. launched Enphase solar and storage products on the Powur platform at the Powur 2021 Scale Up National Virtual Convention held on Feb. 20. Through Enphase’s collaboration with Powur, solar and storage sales consultants will receive Enphase product training, and more than 110 Powur solar installation professionals will go through Enphase University training for Enphase Storage Installation Certification. More info available here.

Grid tech acquisition

Sentient Energy, a Koch Engineered Solutions company, acquired grid edge intelligence and dynamic control technologies from Varentec Inc., a company backed by Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures, and 3M. Varentec’s grid edge optimization hardware and management software help utilities operate the power grid more efficiently by enhancing energy savings and demand reduction, better managing distributed energy resource integration, and mitigating voltage fluctuations caused by sudden increases or decreases of load or distributed generation.

Sentient Energy said the technology acquisition gives customers comprehensive visibility and control of grid performance from the utility substation transformer to beyond the service transformer from a single vendor. Sentient Energy added Varentec’s proprietary algorithms, patented voltage monitoring, and dynamic control technologies to its suite of devices and advanced analytics for electric power systems. More info available here.

MIT-developed solar cell

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have fabricated a perovskite solar cell through the chemical bath deposition method (CBD) to reach a reported power conversion efficiency of 25.2%. CBD is a technique to produce films of solid inorganic, non-metallic materials on substrates by immersing the substrate in a precursor aqueous solution. The MIT scientists added a special conductive layer of tin dioxide bonded between the conductive layer and the perovskite material. More info available here.