Dust Networks intros SA-600 wireless sensor networking solution

Intersolar North America 2009, HAYWARD, USA: Dust Networks, the leading supplier of embedded wireless sensor networking (WSN) solutions, introduced the SmartMesh SA-600 system at Intersolar North America, a major trade show for the global solar market.

The SmartMesh SA-600 system enables customers to integrate a standards-based wireless mesh network with sensors and actuators to create scalable monitoring and control infrastructure without the cost and complexity of wires.

SmartMesh SA-600 is a self-forming, self-healing wireless mesh network that features dynamic network optimization and intelligent routing to provide levels of wireless network scalability, system-wide reliability and ultra low-power operation that are unmatched in the industry today.

Designed for use in line-powered, battery-powered, or energy-scavenging applications, SmartMesh SA-600 maximizes the flexibility of deployment options and allows sensors to be located wherever they need to go.

Dust’s solution also includes comprehensive APIs that allow customers to embed advanced wireless networking intelligence into existing monitoring and control solutions with low risk and rapid time-to-market.

By dramatically reducing the cost of capturing and managing sensor data, WSN solutions enable efficiency in a wide variety of markets, including renewable energy generation.

“For solar applications, particularly commercial and utility scale installations, WSN solutions can be used to monitor the health of inverters, control the orientation of solar collectors, relay temperature and weather information, and even measure the integrity of pumps, and then transmit the data wirelessly to any location,” said Steve Toteda, VP of Marketing of Dust Networks.

“Solar farms, which often span thousands of acres, can be wirelessly monitored more easily and economically than with traditional wired solutions, and SmartMesh SA-600 makes it easy to expand these installations by simply adding additional sensing and control points,” Toteda added.

Globally, estimates from McKinsey forecast dramatic growth in overall solar capacity, rising from today’s levels to over 200 GW by 2020.