Two U.S. businesses have come out on top in the pv magazine Awards 2024, an annual program recognizing innovation and market impact across the solar and storage industries.
Shoals Technologies Group and Fike Corporation were both recognized as pioneers in their fields in a record-breaking year for pv magazine Awards entries. More than 300 applications from across 36 countries entered the pv magazine Awards 2024, with winners selected across eight categories.
Balance of System
Portland based Shoals topped the Balance of System (BoS) category in 2024 with its 2 kV Solutions portfolio. Proponents of 2 kV direct-current (DC) architecture for solar equipment argue it will improve efficiency and reduce cost and enhance scalability. Making that transition, however, will require quality cabling since higher power introduces greater potential for safety hazards.
pv magazine Awards jurors praised Shoals for leading the charge in this area through its portfolio of 2 kV solutions, which has been designed to meet the requirements of upcoming standards for PV systems set out by safety organization Underwriters Laboratories.
Cherif Kedir, CEO and president of the Renewable Energy Test Center, and an independent juror for the pv magazine Awards, said Shoals’ 2 kV BoS portfolio offers “practical solutions” for improving the efficiency and reliability of PV installations.
“These components can help lower installation costs and improve the reliability and efficiency of large-scale solar projects,” he said.
Fellow juror Gautham Ramesh, a principal at Californian solar and storage developer Avantus Energy, added that adopting a 2 kV system can make real financial sense for developers.
“Moving to 2 kV actually opens up new possibilities for layout and scaling. Even basic metrics tell you this change in the DC voltage is going to lead to big savings,” said Ramesh.
BESS
In Blue Springs, Missouri, efforts to improve safety features for battery energy storage systems (BESS) have been rewarded. Fike Corporation topped a competitive field in the BESS category as jurors warmed to its Fike Blue solution. Battery thermal runaway incidents are a relatively new phenomenon and while battery fires remain rare, effective suppression methods are vital.
To combat this, Fike has developed a tank with a liquid that has a boiling point of more than 400 C. When a heat anomaly is detected, a releasing panel activates a cylinder that allows Fike Blue to flow through a piping network. The fire suppression liquid is then discharged in a targeted way through nozzles to where the fire is located, immersing cells and absorbing heat.
Category juror Nina Munzke, team leader for stationary energy storage at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, praised Fike for designing a fire suppression solution that uses far less water than sprinklers, or firefighters.
“This makes the solution much safer for the environment as it limits the amount of water mixed with hazardous chemicals and released during thermal runaway, that ends up in the ground,” said Munzke.
The full list of pv magazine Awards 2024 winners is available on pv magazine Global.
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