In typical Silicon Valley fashion, if there is a way to make something “smarter” a team of engineers will do it. In recent years this has been an increasing trend in solar. As microinverters, and then power optimizers, gained growing acceptance in the industry the value of adding intelligence at the panel-level started to become more tangible. Companies touted the benefits of more energy, visibility and safety as key differentiators in driving down the levelized cost of solar. However, as with moving from a regular phone to a smart phone, this “smartness” comes at a cost and installers, financiers and system owners are left to figure out whether this value has a positive ROI for their project.
Companies are finding ways to add this extra level of control faster, easier and cheaper than ever before. Six years ago when panel-level electronics were first delivered to an installer, he was getting a heavy brick full of hundreds — if not thousands — of components with full DC to AC conversion along with heat and reliability nightmares. In more recent years installers have shifted ever increasingly to power optimizer architectures with fewer components and better cost structures.
The benefits of power optimizers, however, still rely on external boxes that pose logistical and installation hurdles to installers. Much like CD drives were originally external “accessories” to a computer, module-level power electronics are add-on, after-market products for installers.
This year that norm changed as module manufacturers for the first time introduced smart modules, which incorporates the power optimizer circuit directly into the junction box of their solar module. This major transformation enables better economies of scale, improved installation time, enhanced bankability and simplified logistics.
One of the major benefits of smart modules is their ability to simplify the supply chain. This often overlooked benefit does a great deal to streamline operational efficiency and lower the cost to system owners. Power optimizer companies can now focus on mass production of solid-state devices, module manufacturers take these chips and automate them into their junction box assembly and an installer installs a module that looks, feels and even weighs identical to a standard solar module.
An installer can buy a smart module today, ship it to the installation site and not have to worry about any other boxes. This simple, plug-and-play installation reduces significant labor costs and the logistic costs of having to manage more SKU’s on a job site. Additionally an installer can now rely on the bankability afforded by their standard module manufacturer and any inverter of their choice. This ensures that the warranty you bank on is not just a worthless piece of paper if something happens further down the road.
Smart modules represent a major step in the module level power electronics market. With increased operational efficiency, costs across the supply chain are poised to drop dramatically. All the benefits that power electronics afford with none of the overhead will represent a giant step in reducing the lifecycle costs of solar and help dramatically in lower LCOE. Smart modules are shipping today from a number of vendors and could be poised for dramatic expansion in the next few years.
By: James Bickford, Tigo Energy
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