Borrego Solar Finishes Testing of New Enphase Micro Inverter

Borrego Solar has finished its beta testing phase of the new Enphase micro inverter and Enlighten monitoring system and we give it a big "thumbs up!" The new Enphase micro inverter allows us more freedom in designing PV systems and increases system output by as much as 10%..

Rather than having all of an array's solar modules strung together and conduit run to a central inverter, the micro inverter adheres to the underside of each individual solar module in the array. With traditional solar installations, a string of solar modules (or panels) are only as efficient as their lowest producing unit. With the Enphase micro inverter, each unit is essentially its own string, which allows us to maximize a solar system's energy production and performance like never before. Go here to learn more about these amazing new inverters.

Enphase has also patented their Enlighten Monitoring system. With Enlighten, the solar system owner can log onto their own web portal to view their solar array in real time and see the performance of each individual module. Enlighten helps us better pin point any underperforming modules assisting with any servicing needs, and is also an easy way to visualize the energy production of the solar system.

Borrego is proud to be one of the few installers who've had access to this new technology for the past few months and is excited to continue to install new residential and commercial solar systems with the Enphase technology.

About Enphase: Enphase Energy provides solar energy management systems for residential and commercial customers. The company pioneered the industry's first networked solar energy system, which includes high-efficiency micro-inverters, communications gateways and web-based analytics and visualization. Founded in 2006 and based in Northern California, the company is led by veterans from the solar and high tech industries and backed by industry leaders. For more information about Enphase please visit their website at www.enphaseenergy.com


Check out the Solar Panel Monitoring system video here: http://www.enphaseenergy.com/Products/M ... System.php

Heres a PDF File with prices on all types inverters and it also covers these Enphase Micro Inverters, the Monitoring service is pricey at $350.00 for 1 years and $650.00 for 5 years. Forget that, we can monitor our own for free.

http://www.aeesolar.com/catPDFs/low/09- ... rs-low.pdf



Fred

that might be neat (giving away my age bracket), but no ul approval can be a problem especially if your house burns down because of it. even if it wasn't the cause of it because the insurance company may blame that for the cause anyway to get out of paying.

From their website, it appears:

http://www.enphaseenergy.com/Products/Products-Micro-Inverter.php



CSA is an NRTL (like UL) and should be acceptable in US and Canada.

The list price is around $1 per watt... If they get down into $0.50 per watt street pricing--then may give the central inverter a run for their money.

There was another company a few years ago (Netherlands?) that was selling 1 inverter per panel too--wasn't there? I think those came with the panel instead and could not be removed/replaced independently of the panels like these Enphase units.

Looks interesting. I wonder if this will lead to guerrilla solar grid tied installs (a few panels, no permits or utility notifications)...

-Bill

The first was the Trace Mirco Sine and it was UL1741 listed in 1998, then it was made as the OK4U, no UL listings and sold on eBay

The unit is on the CA list of approved vendors:

http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/equipment/inverter.php

And its performance data is

http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/equipm ... -240-S.pdf

A couple of thoughts:

Having AC as the array interconnect means everything must be in conduit, current MC cabled systems do not have this requirement.

Instead of current limited DC running around the roof, there is now breaker limited 240VAC. Typical high voltage strings are in the 300-400 Volt ranges, so it would appear on large arrays this would have higher currents on the AC wiring with the need for larger wire size

NEC 690 has requirements for DC/AC disconnects, its not obvious to me where the disconnect is for this inverter.

The inverter is now subject to the panel temperatures, the test data only shows 40C operation, it will be at least double that ( probably more like triple ) in roof mounted arrays, that will hurt efficiency and life of the inverter

The claim of a array being limited by the lowest performer in series is not quite true. I have found with extensive testing what happens is yes, an array will operate at the lowest current BUT, the other panels then operate at a higher voltage to match the slighty reduced current. The VI curve of a solar panel is fairly flat meaning if the current is reduced most if not all the difference is gained by running at a slightly higher voltage.

Mating a inverter to a single panel means you have a 5-10 year device on a 40+ year panel, have fun when one of your 50 inverters dies and its in the middle of the array. Inverters on the side of the house can be easily accessed and replaced

With so many manufactures of inverters these days, its becoming increasingly harder for the manufactures to standout from the crowd and this is a feature that no one else has.

The is NO chance this will takes any sales away from current large gridtie sales, it might find a place in the people who want to be gridtie with a panel or two, but the math/payback makes no sense for this sized systems

I think this will go the way of the micro inverters before them and then what happens if the company in 3 years is no more?, with house mounted inverters, you can always swap in some other manufactures inverter, not the case with this unit and you have 20-30X more of them!

bb,
i missed that csa quote in the text. thanks for pointing it out. i think it will make for a few more doing guerilla as the fewer pvs will be easier to hide from the utility.
sg,
does it specify the inverter must be at the pv or can you make a dc run to the house to have the inverter internal to the house and thus more protected from the elements much like the standard inverters do? i also think it would've been more appealing to have it for up to 500-600w rather than just 150-200w. it would've added a touch more cost due to the added fets, but the capacity would look more appealing for those looking for an intermediate grid-tie inverter when they haven't the room for that many pvs to accomodate the larger inverter capacities at a cost savings to the owner. i suppose a few will find this smaller 200w inverter useful, but for the cost of expansion to it i say no. most people i would think can accomodate up to 500-600w of pvs minimumly (be it small roofs, rvs, or poles) and that's why this isn't cost effective having to have up to 3 inverters at that cost. am i making sense?