Monday, September 13, 2010

Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories awards Princeton Power Systems $2.7 million for new SEGIS solar inverter design

WEST WINDSOR, USA: Princeton Power Systems (PPS), a New Jersey based manufacturer of advanced power conversion products, announced the award of a $2.7 million Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) Stage III contract under the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program.

The contract is the result of a competitive solicitation for the SEGIS program. Initiated in 2008, the SEGIS activity is a partnership that includes DOE, Sandia National Laboratories, industry, utilities, and universities and emphasizes complete renewable photovoltaic systems development.

This Stage III contract for system commercialization and demonstration is a continuation of Stage II, which focused on prototype development of an advanced Demand Response Inverter (DRI) system that will lower the cost of solar energy through higher balance-of-system efficiency, higher reliability, and lower capital cost, while providing value added ancillary services to both the utility and end users, including energy storage.

Solar systems equipped with the DRI will contain advanced control capabilities to take advantage of time-of-use and peak-demand rate structures, compatibility with energy management, as well as remote monitoring and communications with the smart grid and building management systems.

“The development of intelligent inverter technologies is a key element component of the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program” said Marshall Cohen, PPS’ CEO and president. Darren Hammell, executive VP of Business Development, added: “The Demand Response Inverter will address many issues that hinder the large-scale deployment of solar energy. With the continuation of this program, we will be able to make the DRI concept a reality through several demonstration projects.”

The SEGIS program will create several manufacturing and engineering “green” jobs in New Jersey.

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