Silver Spring Networks: McCulloch-Pitts Award The highest SunSpec honor,  the McCulloch-Pitts award, was given to Silver Spring Networks (http://www.silverspringnet.com)  in recognition of its significant contributions toward the integration of  residential solar PV and the Smart Grid. Tom Herbst of Silver Spring Networks  and John Nunneley, executive director and chief technology officer of the  SunSpec Alliance, have worked diligently for more than two years to harmonize  Smart Energy Profile 2.0—a key technology of the Smart Grid—with SunSpec  specifications. As a result of this effort, consumers and utilities will soon be  given visibility into both energy demand and generation in the home from a  single source, enabling seamless integration of solar power generation and  ensuring stable and functional smart electric grids.

“We want to thank Silver Spring Networks for its leadership in driving the  integration of residential PV power plants and the smart grid. The technology  that has resulted from the collaboration of Silver Spring Networks and the  SunSpec Alliance is fundamental to helping utilities around the world overcome  the challenge of maintaining stable power grids while honoring the right of  individuals to operate solar PV power plants on their homes,” said Tom Tansy,  Chairman of the SunSpec Alliance.

About the McCulloch-Pitts Award: In the 1940′s, the team of McCulloch and  Pitts performed groundbreaking research in the areas of neural networking and  artificial intelligence. One result of their work, known as the “McCulloch-Pitts  Neuron” (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neuron)  is a fundamental building block of modern computing that informs how we  conceptualize “thinking” systems. Accordingly, the McCulloch-Pitts Award is  given by the SunSpec Alliance to recognize individuals and companies who  contribute to the integration of renewable energy and the smart grid.

Solar Frontier: General Excellence Solar Frontier (http://www.solar-frontier.com)  was given the SunSpec General Excellence Award. This award is conferred on the  SunSpec Alliance member that best demonstrates the values of the SunSpec  Alliance, including open standards leadership, technical innovation, business  leadership, global partnership, and humanitarian values.  Solar Frontier was  singled out for its many business and technical achievements during the year,  and for its contributions to helping rebuild Japan in the aftermath of the  Tsunami that struck the country on March 11, 2011. The leadership shown by Solar  Frontier provides inspiration to others that will make solar PV the preferred  energy source of the 21st century.

SolarBridge Technologies: Bridge Builder Award. The first SunSpec Bridge  Builder award was given to the aptly-named SolarBridge Technologies (http://www.solarbridgetech.com).  SolarBridge was chosen for their role in creating the partnership between  SunSpec and the UPVI Alliance. SolarBridge recognized the synergy of the UPVI  Alliance, a developer of mechanical standards for PV module electronics  integration, and the SunSpec Alliance, and worked diligently to forge a  partnership between the two organizations. This effort is an example of  standards development at its best, where entities focused on  distinct-yet-complimentary technologies find creative ways to cooperate rather  than compete. As a result, SunSpec and UPVI can each focus on its core  competencies and create even more impactful results for the global PV  industry.

SolarEdge Technologies: Open Standards Champion (Supplier) SolarEdge  Technologies was selected for the SunSpec Open Standards Champion award in the  Supplier category. This award recognizes the PV component manufacturer or  solution provider that best demonstrates the concept of “backing up words with  action”. SolarEdge was singled out for its outstanding contributions to  standards development (SolarEdge was a key contributor to SunSpec standards for  inverter monitoring, inverter control, and module-level management), its vocal  promotion of PV standards as a mechanism for driving inefficiency from the PV  supply chain, and for deploying standards-compliant products in solar plants  around the world.

City of Boston, Massachusetts: Open Standards Champion (Customer) The City  of Boston was selected for the SunSpec “Open Standards Champion” award in the  Customer category. This award was established to recognize the PV power plant  owner or purchase influencer that best shows the PV industry the value of “standards in action”. The City of Boston was singled out for making the  business case for solar PV information standards in a municipal setting and for  leading the effort to define procurement standards that encourage the adoption  of standards-based PV solutions.

About SunSpec Alliance

The SunSpec Alliance is a federation of solar PV  industry participants, together pursuing information standards for the renewable  energy industry. SunSpec standards address most major sub-systems and  operational aspects of PV power plants on the smart grid—including residential,  commercial, and utility-scale systems—thus reducing cost, promoting technology  innovation, and accelerating industry growth. Over 50 organizations are members  of the SunSpec Alliance, including global leaders from Asia, Europe, and North  America. Membership is open to corporations, non-profits, and individuals. For  more information about the SunSpec Alliance, or to download SunSpec  specifications at no charge, please visit http://www.sunspec.org.

# # #

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/592862#ixzz1n3DdLB2q

Roof-Ready^TM AC modules powered by SolarBridge cut field installation time by up to 20 percent and deliver up to 25 percent more energy harvest over central inverter-based systems. SolarBridge Pantheon microinverters are factory-installed on the back of modules by module manufacturers and the entire AC module is backed by a single 25-year warranty.

“We are excited to work with Boots on the Roof to introduce this powerful new solution to the solar industry,” said Joe Scarci, VP of Marketing for SolarBridge. “AC modules powered by SolarBridge microinverters provide the lowest installed cost for rooftop solar. SolarBridge microinverters are designed for high reliability and don’t contain any failure-prone components such as electrolytic capacitors, giving installers confidence that they are implementing a solution they can trust.”

“Boots on the Roof is committed to educating our students on the latest and most innovative solutions on the market,” said Chuck Rames, program director for Boots on the Roof. “We know that solar technology evolves rapidly and we look to partners like SolarBridge to share information on cutting-edge products such as the SolarBridge AC Module system.”

SolarBridge’s technology will also be featured in Boots’ Commercial Solar Business and Sales and Commercial Solar PV Construction classes.

About Boots on the Roof

Boots on the Roof is the nation’s leading solar training facility, headquartered in Fremont California. Boots on the Roof is also deploying the next generation of solar courses, to facilitate the industries rapid expansion in to Commercial-Scale Solar Projects.

About SolarBridge Technologies

SolarBridge Technologies, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry, is accelerating the adoption of solar energy in residential and commercial applications. The SolarBridge AC Module System—featuring the SolarBridge Pantheon microinverter, Power Manager and Power Portal—dramatically increases the efficiency and reliability of PV systems, while reducing the levelized cost of energy. The Pantheon microinverter matches the lifetime of solar modules, enabling module manufacturers to provide a 25-year warranty on AC modules. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.solarbridgetech.com.

# # #

Dr. Henry Kelly (right) tours the SolarBridge labs with (from left) Peter Gage, Senior Advisor to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Patrick Chapman, CTO/Co-Founder, SolarBridge Technologies; Ron Van Dell, president/CEO, SolarBridge Technologies.

Solartec’s S60MC is a 240-watt monocrystalline AC module that converts DC power from each solar module to grid-compliant AC power. The S60MC features a SolarBridge Pantheon microinverter that is factory-installed on the back of the module. The integrated assembly is backed by a single 25-year warranty. Solartec plans to begin shipping S60MC modules later this quarter.

Roof-readyTM AC modules powered by SolarBridge reduce field installation time by 20 percent and deliver up to 25 percent more energy harvest over central inverter-based systems. Integrated AC modules provide the lowest installed cost for rooftop solar, a powerful incentive for the burgeoning solar market in Mexico. Solartec’s S60MC is also certified by Mexico’s FIDE (Fideicomiso Para El Ahorro De Energia Electrica) as an energy-efficient product, qualifying system owners for additional rebates.

IMS Research has identified Mexico as a market with very high potential for future PV deployment and predicts it to become one of the fastest growing markets, with installations increasing at a rate of over 200 percent over the next four years.

“We are very pleased to be working with Solartec to introduce AC solar solutions to Mexico,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge. “Plug-and-play AC modules are a very compelling product in such a rapidly growing market that has high solar irradiance.”

“SolarBridge has been an excellent partner in bringing the S60MC to market,” said Miguel Medina, general manager of Solartec. “Their innovative product design and high reliability made us confident that we could build the microinverter directly onto the module to offer what the Mexican solar market needs – easy, affordable solar solutions.”

About Solartec Energia Renovable

Solartec manufactures crystalline silicon and thin film modules for Mexico, Latin America and North America. Based in Irapuato, Mexico, Solartec offers renewable energy solutions through a network of distribution partners. For more information, go to www.solartec.mx.

About SolarBridge Technologies

SolarBridge Technologies, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry, is accelerating the adoption of rooftop solar energy in residential and commercial applications. SolarBridge’s patented Pantheon microinverter mounts directly onto solar modules, greatly increasing system efficiency and reliability, while reducing the cost of solar installation and maintenance. The Pantheon microinverter is designed to match the lifetime of solar modules, enabling module manufacturers to provide a 25-year warranty on their AC modules. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.solarbridgetech.com.

Media Contact:
Stacey Gaswirth
Shelton Group for SolarBridge
972-239-5119, ext. 132
sgaswirth@sheltongroup.com

SolarBridge Contact:
Nancy Edwards
512-583-5315
n.edwards@solarbridgetech.com

Austin, Texas

“As SolarBridge continues to grow, we are pleased to welcome Judd Rabb to our executive team,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge. “He brings a wealth of valuable experience to our company and will be an important contributor to the further success of SolarBridge.”

Rabb will be responsible for the financial and administrative operations of SolarBridge, as well as leading future fundraising efforts. He brings more than 20 years of comprehensive financial management experience, including mergers and acquisitions, treasury, controllership, strategic planning, fundraising, business development and financial analysis.

Prior to joining SolarBridge, Rabb served as CFO and vice president of finance at Coldwatt (acquired by Flextronics), CFO and vice president of finance at energy-efficient lighting pioneer Illumitex, Corporate Controller at Green Mountain Energy (acquired by NRG), and Corporate Controller at Silicon Laboratories, where he played an instrumental role in the company’s initial public offering.

Rabb began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was a founding member of the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee jointly sponsored by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and American Institute of Certified Accountants.

Rabb earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Texas A&M University.

About SolarBridge Technologies

SolarBridge Technologies, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry, is accelerating the adoption of rooftop solar energy in residential and commercial applications. SolarBridge’s patented Pantheon microinverter mounts directly onto solar panels, greatly increasing system efficiency and reliability, while reducing the cost of solar installation and maintenance. The Pantheon microinverter is designed to match the lifetime of solar panels, enabling manufacturers to provide a 25-year warranty on their AC modules. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.solarbridgetech.com.

Media Contact: Stacey Gaswirth, Shelton Group for SolarBridge, sgaswirth@sheltongroup.com, 972-239-5119, ext. 132

SolarBridge Contact: Nancy Edwards, n.edwards@solarbridgetech.com, 512-583-5315

It’s not just the how of HelioVolt that makes it unusual in the solar space; it’s also the where. The company isn’t based in southern San Francisco or Boulder, Colo., or the Boston area — the bright green regions that tend to lead the national conversation on clean tech. HelioVolt calls the Texas state capital of Austin home. B.J. Stanbery, the solar veteran who founded HelioVolt in 2001, is a native Texan who got his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas just down the road from the company’s factory, but he kept his business in Austin for more practical reasons. “The manufacturing skills that workers have here are directly transferable to a thin-film solar company like us,” he says. “And the business culture is attractive here because people are used to taking risks in the energy space.”

Of course, when people think about the energy space in Texas — home to wildcatters and J.R. Ewing of television’s Dallas fame — they probably picture oil rigs and natural gas wells. The current governor of Texas, after all, is the far-right-leaning Rick Perry, who made it known early in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that he was a climate-change skeptic. “I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized,” Perry told voters in New Hampshire in August. “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”

But as politically conservative as Texas tends to be, it’s kept an open mind on renewable energy, which is one reason more wind power has been installed in the state than anywhere else. And within Texas, Austin has always been an outlier: a fairly liberal college town that has managed to marry high tech with hipster culture. Now that’s paying off in the renewable-energy sector, as Austin contends with Silicon Valley as a top clean-tech hub. The city is home to dozens of green start-ups like HelioVolt, many funded by homegrown venture capitalists. Some 15,000 Austin residents are employed in the broader green economy, and the municipal utility, Austin Energy, has pledged to get 35% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Over the past eight years, the number of clean-tech jobs has grown more than twice as fast in the Austin metro area as it has in San Francisco. With its background in information technology, Austin is set to take the lead in one of the most exciting areas in clean tech: the marriage of new energy technology with the Internet. “Austin is already a high-tech city,” says Jose Beceiro, the director of clean energy at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. “Now it’s becoming a clean-tech city.”

Keeping It Weird
For Austin, high tech had to come before clean tech. The city has long been a science-and-technology hub, thanks to the presence of the sprawling main campus of the University of Texas, with a student body of 50,000. In the mid-1980s one of those students was Michael Dell, who founded his eponymous computer company in a University of Texas dorm room before moving Dell to a sprawling campus north of Austin. Around the same time, the federal government and U.S. semi-conductor manufacturers launched a research consortium — based in Austin — called Sematech, pooling public and private investment to compete with Japan, which was threatening to dominate the semiconductor industry.

Sematech and Dell helped create a high-tech boom in Austin through the 1990s, luring tens of thousands of talented engineers who came for the jobs and stayed for the Austin lifestyle — best exemplified by the metastasizing South by Southwest festival, an annual pilgrimage of the hip that brings together music, film and interactive media. “It’s a great place to live, and that matters in this industry,” says Brewster McCracken, the executive director of Pecan Street, a smart-grid research project in Austin.

So as clean tech began to heat up in the early part of the past decade, Austin was a logical place for start-ups and entrepreneurs to set up shop. An experienced technical workforce was already available, ready to shift from manufacturing computer chips to building solar panels. SolarBridge Technologies, which makes microinverters that improve the efficiency of solar modules, spun off from the University of Illinois, but when it came time to scale up, the company picked Austin over other clean-tech hubs like the Bay Area and Boston. “We like the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and there’s just a ton of talent here that you can’t get in Illinois,” says Joe Scarci, SolarBridge’s vice president of marketing. “It’s a great place to recruit.”

This is how industry clusters build: companies come for the employees, and they in turn attract more capital, more workers and more start-ups. That critical mass of innovation is one reason SustainLane Government, a network for green business, has ranked Austin the top city in the U.S. for clean-tech incubation. Austin-based green start-ups can also count on help from the University of Texas and the city government. The Clean Energy Incubator at U.T. supports young green start-ups, providing some initial seed money and holding networking events that can connect entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The Texas Clean Energy Park — a public-private program in Austin — provides facilities and training for the smallest clean-tech start-ups.

Clean tech, however — much more than information technology — is still dependent on direct government policy, subsidies for renewable power and regulations that mandate energy efficiency and greener buildings. And that’s where Austin’s progressive-leaning politics — Barack Obama received 64% of the vote here in 2008, even as Republican John McCain handily won Texas — pay off. The presence of the university, the slacker subculture of the 1990s and the influential live-music scene has helped make the city, whose unofficial motto is “Keep Austin weird,” far more liberal than most in Texas. Austin has more 100%-green-powered businesses than any other city in the country, and all the municipal government’s electricity comes from renewable sources. Consumers and businesses can receive handsome rebates for installing more energy-efficient appliances and photovoltaic systems — all of which means that clean-tech companies can come to the city knowing there’s a built-in market for their products. “The city here does an excellent job of supporting green tech,” says Bill Sims, CEO of the biofuel company Joule Unlimited, which recently opened a pilot plant in Austin.

But perhaps the single biggest factor behind the greening of Austin is an institution that in most cities stands in the way of clean tech: the utility. Because the city of Austin owns its utility — and because politically progressive Austin residents have shown support for renewable power — Austin Energy has more latitude for experimentation than most of its counterparts around the U.S.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the Pecan Street project, a pioneering smart-grid research and demonstration program based in Austin’s historic Mueller neighborhood. Pecan Street is a collaboration between Austin Energy, the Environmental Defense Fund, the city of Austin and the university, with much of its financing provided by the 2009 federal stimulus bill. The study is detailing energy and water use at the residential level, gathering data that most utilities barely have a handle on. The Pecan Street project, which is also experimenting with residential solar energy and electric vehicles, aims to use that information to create a smarter and more efficient grid, one that is far less wasteful than the rickety power systems throughout the U.S. And it’s something that could have only happened in Texas, where deregulation has forced utilities to compete for profits by investing in technologies that help their customers use less energy. The transition hasn’t been perfect. Some consumers complain about higher costs, and there have been unexpected blackouts. But deregulation does free up utilities to experiment. “Getting this data is the first step to figuring out how to be really efficient,” says Pecan Street’s McCracken. “And Austin is the place where we can get that done.”

With its mix of high tech and clean tech, Austin is well positioned to take advantage of the next major phase in green development: the energy Internet. Ubiquitous digital connection has helped transform the way we communicate and the way we work, but most of us are barely aware of how we use energy. The energy Internet can change that. Green software start-ups like Austin-based Incenergy have developed online energy-management systems that allow building owners to remotely manage smart thermostats, reducing wasted heat and air-conditioning. Companies like Tendril are bringing that capacity to the residential level, creating home energy networks that will enable us to control our energy use as intelligently as we now control our digital video recorders. And the Pecan Street project is the perfect place to test some of these new technologies on a connected and greener-than-average populace. “A lot of my prospective customers are here,” says Jim Balthazar, explaining why he moved his clean-tech start-up Nuventix from Atlanta to Austin. “And he who has the money makes the rules.”

So what could go wrong? Austin faces the same challenges the larger clean-tech sector is confronting: a drying pool of venture capital, the forbidding cost of scaling up and the uncertainties around national climate policy. But the city’s biggest obstacle might be the man who lives in the governor’s mansion in the heart of Austin: Rick Perry. If Perry — or just about any of the other climate-change-doubting Republican candidates on the campaign trail — were to win the White House, it’s hard to see much support for clean tech surviving the budget ax. But even if that happens, Austin may well endure. This is a city that takes pride in going against the grain — and doing things itself. “I’m a native Texan, and I know about the entrepreneurial spirit here,” says HelioVolt’s Stanbery. “People believe that if you want to do well, you need to work hard.” That’s an ethic clean tech will need in the difficult days ahead.

SolarBridge Pantheon Microinverter

SolarPowerOnline.com(October 24, 2011) – by Kathleen Zipp – Speaking with SolarBridge Technologies at the recent Solar Power International conference in Texas I learned that the manufacturer of microinverters has paired with SunPower Corp. to combine their areas of expertise. SolarBridge Technologies will supply their PantheonTM microinverter for the SunPower E18 & E19 AC panels.

The all-black E18/225 W AC solar panels and the E19/240 W AC solar panels will be available in the U.S. in early 2012. The factory-integrated AC panels are certified to UL standards and backed by a 25-year warranty. “AC solar panels powered by SolarBridge are simple to install and reliable,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge.

With a reduced voltage-temperature coefficient and superior low-light performance, the panels provide 18.1% and 19.1% efficiency, respectively, says the company. The SolarBridge Pantheon offers 95.5% efficiency and performs maximum power point tracking at the panel level, further increasing energy harvest particularly on shaded roofs or suboptimal roof orientations. The combined AC panel provides an increase in energy production up to 25% over string/central inverter-based systems.

Sunpower Corp.'s E18/225 AC solar panel

Designed for reliability, the microinverter contains no electrolytic capacitors or failure-prone components common in other microinverter designs, says SolarBridge Technologies. Matching the lifetime of SunPower’s panels, the Pantheon eliminates planned inverter replacements – dramatically reducing overall PV system costs. Also, SunPower’s AC solar panels eliminate the need to install inverters in the field. There are no grounding electrode conductors, no separate AC trunk cables, no DC components, and no DC cables to manage. Combined, the company says this saves up to $0.25/W in installation costs over string/central inverters or standalone microinverters.

SunPower’s AC solar panels make system design easy by eliminating the need for string sizing. Because of their energy harvest benefits, the panels can be installed at many sites that were previously unsuitable for solar due to shading or roof obstructions. The panels also eliminate high-voltage (up to 600V DC) strings. In emergency situations, first responders are able to turn off power at the AC panel so there is no live wiring anywhere in the building.

GreentechMedia.com (October 18, 2011) – A few years ago, I asked Dick Swanson, the founder of SunPower, about his opinion of module-level electronics and microinverters. Swanson is too much a class act to bad-mouth fellow solar aspirants and entrepreneurs — but he did not seem too impressed with the entire class of distributed electronics.

Fast-forward to a few years later. SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) just announced their AC solar panels at Solar Power International in Dallas today. Their partner: Austin, Texas-based SolarBridge, a startup funded by VCs including Battery Ventures and others. SunPower is the market share leader in the U.S. residential market.

Last week Greentech Media broke the news that Canadian Solar had aligned with solar electronics maker, ArrayPower, another VC-funded upstart. The CEO of ArrayPower, Wendy Arienzo, called the device a “sequenced inverter” in a recent interview and is directing it at commercial-scale applications using crystalline silicon modules.

As for AC modules, here’s a comment from a colleague, “An AC module is as good as the microinverter it is attached to. Any module vendor that attaches an unproven technology to their modules is potentially risking their reputation, especially in an environment where there is so much focus on the industry to not trip up.”

As with all distributed electronics schemes, these technology solutions seek to maximize energy harvest, minimize power attenuation from shading and panel or thermal mismatch, and improve on the reliability and efficiency of central solar inverters, the long-dominant technology.

So the microinverter firms are busy allying with the panel manufacturers, getting to market in tandem with the big players and with a big-player guarantee. SunPower’s AC panels are backed by a single, end-to-end 25-year warranty.

On the other hand. Enphase, the microinverter pioneer fresh off of shipping its millionth unit, has taken a different route to market — selling through distributors, installers, and integrators. And my understanding is that Enphase does not exactly have a sunny relationship with SunPower.

Enphase has the clear early lead, but they have a lot of folks on their tail.

Lots more balance-of-system and inverter news to come this week from Dallas. Stay tuned.

Eric Wesoff
Greentech Media

And High-Efficiency Panels

Solar Power International, DALLAS (October 17, 2011) – SolarBridge Technologies (SolarBridge), the leading developer of panel-integrated microinverters for the solar industry, today announced a strategic relationship with SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRA, SPWRB), to  supply the company with SolarBridge Pantheon^TM microinverters for the SunPower® E18 & E19 AC Solar Panel series.  The AC Solar Panel provides an ultra high-efficiency, easy-to-install rooftop PV solution.

The all-black, aesthetically pleasing E18/225 watt AC solar panels and the maximum-efficiency E19/240 watt AC solar panels will be available in the U.S. in early 2012.  The factory-integrated AC panels are certified to UL standards and backed by SunPower’s industry-leading 25-year warranty. 

“AC solar panels powered by SolarBridge are the simplest, most reliable rooftop PV solution on the market today,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge. “As the share leader in the U.S. residential market, SunPower can dramatically accelerate the adoption of solar with this differentiated AC panel solution.

Benefits of the integrated SunPower AC solar panels with SolarBridge microinverters include:

• Highest Energy Production – With a reduced voltage-temperature coefficient and superior low-light performance, the SunPower E18 and E19 panels provide 18.1 percent and 19.1 percent efficiency, respectively. The SolarBridge Pantheon offers 95.5 percent efficiency and performs maximum power point tracking at the panel level, further enhancing energy harvest particularly on shaded roofs or suboptimal roof orientations. The combined AC panel provides an increase in energy production up to 25 percent over string/central inverter-based system.
• Highest Reliability – SunPower’s AC solar panels are backed by a single, end-to-end 25-year warranty. Designed for reliability, the SolarBridge Pantheon microinverter contains no electrolytic capacitors or failure-prone components common in other microinverter designs. Matching the lifetime of SunPower’s panels, the Pantheon eliminates planned inverter replacements – dramatically reducing overall PV system costs.
• Lowest Installation Cost – SunPower’s AC solar panels eliminate the need to install inverters in the field. In addition, there are no grounding electrode conductors, no separate AC trunk cables, no DC components, and no DC cables to manage. Combined, these labor-reducing advantages save up to $0.25/W in installation costs over string/central inverters or standalone microinverters.
• Fast, Flexible System Design – SunPower’s AC solar panels make system design easy by eliminating the need for string sizing. Because of their energy harvest benefits, the panels can be installed at many sites that were previously unsuitable for solar due to shading or roof obstruction
• Safest Solution – SunPower’s AC solar panels eliminate high voltage (up to 600V DC) strings.  In emergency situations, first responders are able to turn off power at the AC panel so there is no live wiring anywhere in the building.

The SunPower E18 & E19 AC Solar Panel series will be on display at Solar Power International in Dallas from October 18 to 20 in both the SunPower booth (#2309) and the SolarBridge booth (#4316).

About SolarBridge Technologies

SolarBridge Technologies, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry, is accelerating the adoption of rooftop solar energy in residential and commercial applications. SolarBridge’s patented Pantheon microinverter mounts directly onto solar panels, greatly increasing system efficiency and reliability, while reducing the cost of solar installation and maintenance. The Pantheon microinverter is designed to match the lifetime of solar panels, enabling manufacturers to provide a 25-year warranty on their AC panels. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.solarbridgetech.com.

AUSTIN, Texas (October 7, 2011) – SolarBridge Technologies (SolarBridge), a leading provider of PV microinverter solutions, has been awarded a $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The grant is one of ARPA-E’s 60 cutting-edge research projects announced last week that are worth a combined $156 million, aimed at dramatically improving how the U.S. produces and uses energy.

The goal of the ARPA-E project is to accelerate innovation in clean energy technologies while increasing U.S. competitiveness and creating jobs. The selections focus specifically on breakthroughs in rare earth alternatives, biofuels, thermal storage, grid controls and solar power electronics.

SolarBridge will use the funds to perform advanced research and development for a new electronic technique that improves the output of solar panels. The technique is specifically aimed at large solar power plants, where many solar panels are connected together. The technology, called Differential Power Processing (DPP), involves correcting the power differences that inherently occur when two solar modules, encountering different amounts of sun, are connected together. The power conversion device incorporating DPP will be much smaller and less expensive than current electronic solutions. SolarBridge will collaborate on the project with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“We are pleased to participate in groundbreaking research that is part of a national clean energy initiative,” said Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of SolarBridge. “From the beginning, SolarBridge’s goal has been to accelerate the adoption of solar energy. The ARPA-E grant will help us make our goal a reality.”

ARPA-E had previously awarded $365.7 million in funds to approximately 120 energy projects, across seven program areas. This most recent round of grants adds another 60 projects and five program areas, for a total of $521.7 million in awards.

SolarBridge’s ARPA-E grant follows a $2.3 million grant which the company received in mid-September from the U.S. Department of Energy through its SunShot Initiative. The program’s goal is to reduce the cost of solar energy systems by 75 percent by 2020.

About SolarBridge Technologies

SolarBridge Technologies, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry, is working to accelerate the adoption of solar energy through innovations in solar power electronics. SolarBridge’s patented Pantheon^TM microinverter mounts directly onto solar modules, greatly increasing system efficiency and reliability, while reducing the cost of solar installation and maintenance. The Pantheon microinverter is designed to match the lifetime of solar modules, enabling module manufacturers to provide a 25-year warranty on their AC modules. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.solarbridgetech.com.

Media Contact:
Stacey Gaswirth
Shelton Group for SolarBridge
972-239-5119, ext. 132
sgaswirth@sheltongroup.com

Company Contact:
Nancy Edwards
SolarBridge Technologies
512-583-5315
n.edwards@solarbridgetech.com