Six-figure up-front savings achieved by shifting array wiring away from traditional series-wired string architecture SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--eIQ Energy’s Parallel Solar technology has been selected for a new 1.8 megawatt solar power installation at a Bee Safe Storage facility in Murrieta, Calif., creating significant up-front cost savings and ongoing energy harvest benefits. Installation will be completed by EcoOneEnergy of Escondido, Calif., using crystalline solar modules driving multiple inverters. An array of this size requires thousands of solar modules. Traditionally, they would have been connected in series-wired strings (each typically containing a dozen or two modules), with each string being wired to a combiner box and then routed to an inverter. By opting instead for the parallel wiring approach enabled by eIQ Energy’s vBoost DC-to-DC voltage optimizer, the need for cabling, combiner boxes, and other hardware is sharply reduced – as is the amount of labor needed during installation. Hardware savings alone on the Bee Safe Storage project will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than offsetting the cost of the eIQ Energy vBoost, which are installed on each panel or group of panels. Over the lifetime of the installation, eIQ Energy’s Parallel Solar technology will also provide distributed MPPT, precision panel-level monitoring of performance, and Web-based access to operational data. The vBoost also eliminates power-sapping interactions between panels on the same string that have different output levels due to shading, soiling, aging, or other issues.
