Speaking to pv magazine, Simon Hombersley, chairman and co-founder of UK company TwentyNinety, which is currently preparing for the commercial launch of its Active Array PV monitoring tags, says that in three years time, it is highly unlikely anybody will be buying "dumb" PV modules.
According to him, the PV industry is in a transition period, where monitoring and control technology is so low cost and easy to implement that there is no reason why manufacturers will not be offering smart PV modules very soon.
"Whoever establishes themselves over the next couple of years, will probably be the platform technology for balance of systems in PV for the next decade. This is going to be a land grab, and companies like TwentyNinety have the opportunity to establish a generic platform technology across all PV for condition and performance monitoring," he states.
Moreover, he says that while in the past, module manufacturers have concentrated on selling as much product as they can, they havent focused on the value-added side of the industry. However, as was reported at the end of last year, PV modules are becoming increasingly commoditized and, as such, product differentiation is key to creating a unique selling point.
"I spend a lot of time talking to project financiers and players in the insurance industry," says Hombersley, "and they perceive PV, perhaps rightly, to be a low technology risk. They bring together heavily geared projects, install five megawatts and then sit back and count the money. Theyre not really appreciating that theyre not getting the most out of those systems."
He continues: "Its actually quite primitive in many ways and its just because its a young industry. Every other industry, condition monitoring of your generating source is absolutely standard. You wouldnt think of building a power station without understanding exactly how its working, and yet people are putting in £5 million worth of plant and they dont actually know whats going on, so I think theres a certain inevitability and timeliness to bringing intelligence monitoring, condition monitoring, control optimization, and so forth into this space."
Active array
As already mentioned, TwentyNinety is preparing to launch its Active Array product onto the market this year. Having come out of an extensive testing period, Hombersley is confident that now is the right time to introduce the monitoring, control and fire safety tags.
The company has already signed an exclusive distribution agreement into the Australian market, and is pursuing the different routes to market in the U.S. Meanwhile, it is aiming to enter the European market directly, without the aid of any third parties.
Designed to slot into junction boxes, the wireless technology, which allows communication with each module in a PV array, can be tailored to fit the needs of individual customers.
Expected to be produced in the hundreds of thousands in 2011, a number of measures have also been employed to ensure that the tags have been kept as low cost as possible. For example, many of the tags components come from other industries. As such, they have been tried and tested in a commercial setting, and are already being produced in large volumes.
Hombersley explains: "Our wireless chip set, which could be quite an expensive item, actually uses the same wireless chip set thats found in wireless mice. We also designed our own communications protocol, so instead of using a protocol like Zigbee, which has a license fee attached to it, weve designed our own, so that we can reduce costs on that. Its really just about cost engineering to make sure that that tag is cost effective and as cheap as possible."
How cheap is cheap in TwentyNinetys eyes? "In terms of our sale price, our objective is to deliver that system to PV manufacturers, total system, not just the individual tag, for within five percent of the installed cost," he says. However, he adds that this allows PV module manufacturers to increase the price to end users to increase their profit margin per module.
TwentyNinety recently won £20,000 from Shell Springboard, in recognition of Active Arrays potential to make a significant impact on the global PV market. What does the company intend to do with the cash? "This is the year that these types of systems are going to be rolled out not just by us, but also by the competition," states Hombersley. "Therefore, were going to use that £20,000 on marketing and commercialization rather than on the technical side."
Competition
While TwentyNinety is confident its product is unique to the market in terms of its specific attributes, and the fact that it is a low cost, generic platform for monitoring and safety, there are many other companies out there working on similar devices.
Hombersley states: "In terms of difference from the competition, there are a number of organizations attempting to address these issues in different ways, from micro-inverters through to us. Where we are different from Solar Edge, SolarMagic or Tigo is that these are all more sophisticated than Active Array! They are seeking to introduce power optimization (in various forms) at the module level.
"We looked at this, and concluded that although technically possible and theoretically more efficient, there was a cost/benefit issue. We therefore went for a less sophisticated and cheaper solution – our 1.0 is module level condition monitoring, enabling/informing repair and replace strategies. Our 2.0 includes a switching function so, if the system calculates that a module is dragging down the performance of a string, it can switch out."
What the others are doing
UK company Enecsys launched a new dual micro-inverter at this years Ecobuild. Reportedly the world's highest power density micro-inverter, the company says it promises reduced costs, simpler installation and a longer life expectancy.
Last October, Suntech also undertook a number of new collaborations in order to integrate intelligent technology into its PV panels. The company joined forces with Tigo Energy, Azuray Technologies, Enphase and National Semiconductor Corp.
Companies like SolarEdge, Solar Eagle and SolarMagic have also developed similar products, as Hombersley mentioned. For example, SolarMagic has released a new product this month – SolarMagic integrated circuits (ICs) – which it says "increases energy harvest, reduces cost per kilowatt-hour and improves safety in junction boxes and other types of enclosures. Used independently, the ICs provide high voltage and high current gate drive for microinverter or power optimizer designs."
Moreover, Solon launched a new power optimizing unit at the 26th Symposium on Photovoltaic Solar Energy in Bad Staffelstein, Germany.
It believes it is the first manufacturer to offer a complete system, which consists of a Solon module with an integrated DC-to-DC power optimizer, a properly adjusted inverter, and a web-based monitoring system. "Furthermore in the event of a fire, the system can be disconnected completely, which ensures a high level of safety for system owners, installers, and fire-fighting units," says the company in a statement. It is working in cooperation with SolarEdge.
Meanwhile, new research released last August by IMS Research stated that PV microinverters and power optimizer revenues predicted to hit around USD$1.5 billion over the next few years. However, it states that while shipments are growing at more than 100 percent on annum, they are forecast to be utilized in less than 10 percent of the global PV installations in 2014.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.