SoloPower and eIQ Energy to offer integrated solar array package for maximized performance

SAN JOSE, USA: eIQ Energy Inc. and SoloPower Inc. will provide an integrated solar energy product package that combines eIQ Energy’s Parallel Solar array wiring technology and SoloPower’s innovative lightweight flexible CIGS photovoltaic modules.

The combined offering has been pre-verified for interoperability, and allows purchasers to obtain a single price quote for a solar array’s entire electrical system, including PV modules, custom pre-fabricated wiring, and eIQ Energy’s vBoost DC-to-DC converter modules, which enable parallel wiring.

In addition to convenience, the SoloPower-eIQ Energy combination provides superior power density, and greater energy harvest due to the integrated MPPT and elimination of panel interactions provided by the Parallel Solar approach. This technology also cuts system costs by eliminating significant quantities of cabling and combiner boxes, and reducing the labor needed during system installation.

SoloPower modules are fabricated on a thin, flexible foil substrate, which reduces costs while creating a finished product that is far more versatile than traditional glass modules. SoloPower modules can be mounted in locations with low weight-bearing ability, and are available in multiple sizes for efficient filling of irregularly shaped roofs. They are also installed at zero tilt, which increases the system’s coverage ratio and therefore power density.

“The integration package with SoloPower provides customers with an economical path to installing solar arrays in a very broad range of location situations,” said Oliver Janssen, CEO of eIQ Energy.

“SoloPower’s CIGS panels and our vBoost modules are both intended to enable greater design flexibility, which is why this partnership makes so much sense for us and our customers. In fact, with eIQ Energy’s vBoost product an installation can use the excellent advantages provided by the SoloPower solution together with more traditional solar technologies all feeding into a single inverter, maximizing coverage and power production for any site. Parallel Solar architecture represents the state of the art in maximizing system performance for installations built in any location.”

“Maximum power point tracking at the module level and parallel wiring architecture offer an innovative energy yield management solution in commercial and industrial rooftop applications,” said Arthur Rudin, VP of Product Development at SoloPower. “Combining SoloPower’s high efficiency modules and eIQ Energy’s vBoost results in a system with improved power density and greater energy harvest maximizing system performance.”

eIQ Energy’s Parallel Solar approach uses advanced DC power management technology, incorporated in the vBoost DC-to-DC converter module, to allow easy connection of solar panels in parallel rather than in series. This approach allows the connection of an unprecedented number of panels on a single cable, greatly reducing up-front solar array costs and providing much more design flexibility, while also boosting lifetime energy harvest with distributed MPPT.

The vComm module combines multiple cable runs into a unified feed to the central inverter, and also utilizes power-bus wiring to collect real-time performance data from each vBoost, for use in the Parallel Solar Monitoring System data analysis software.