Thursday January 10th, 2012 at 6PM Central time (4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern), SolPowerPeople welcomes Gene Krzywinski to the #SolarMOOC stage to present a lecture on parallel solar array design. As stated at eIQenergy.com, "Despite large innovation in the technology of photovoltaic modules, the solar array design has remained largely unchanged for over a decade. With the addition of a simple VBoost converter module, each panel becomes a fully independent, highly efficient contributor of power to the array - just like a power plant on a grid." Attend this #SolarMOOC lecture this Thursday to take a closer look at parallel solar array design and technology (details below).

 Gene Krzywinski co-founded eIQ Energy (formerly Sympagis Technology) in 2007. Product development focused on solving the "Christmas Tree Light" effect, where solar panels that are connected in series perform at the level of the lowest performing panel, and where a defective panel can bring down the entire string. The goal was to make each panel an independent power generator that neither affected or was affected by its neighboring panels. However, grid tied inverters need to have a sufficiently high enough input voltage to deliver the appropriate grid AC voltage. Hence the stringing of modules in series to "stack" their voltages.  By boosting the output voltage of each module to a high enough voltage, panels could be connected in parallel, giving them independence from any other module's operation within the same array.

Gene Krzywinski

In this lecture, Gene will describe the theory and operation behind the vBoost technology and how parallel solar can save time, reduce design and installation costs, while providing optimum performance from a PV installation. 

In 2008, the company succeeded in developing patented technology, the vBoost technology, that accomplished that goal. The technology is applicable to all module technologies and array sizes, even to the extent of permitting multiple technologies and module sizes to feed power to a single central inverter. In addition to the power conditioning, the vBoost provides real time telemetry and reporting, providing  system owners and operators visibility into the real time operation and performance of their installations.

eIQ has over 2.5MW of installed product, including a 1.2MW in central California. One of the company’s initial showcase installations has over 50kW of crystalline, CdTe and CIGS modules feeding their power into a single, off the shelf Satcon inverter.

parallel solar diagram Prior to eIQ, Gene was Executive VP of Impala Linear Corporation, a power management semiconductor company that he turned around and sold to Fairchild Semiconductor in 2001, becoming the   Director of Marketing for Fairchild's Power Management Group.  He was also a cofounder of Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AATI), a power management semiconductor company that had its IPO in 2005. Prior to that he cofounded OnChip Systems, an analog semiconductor custom IC design and development company.  Gene's 30 years of electronics experience also includes Semtech Corporation, Exar Corporation, Ferranti Interdesign and Hewlett Packard Company. He graduated from Rutgers College of Engineering with a BSEE.

To receive an invitation to this lecture, join the #SolarMOOC, SolPowerPeople Solar Massive Open Online Course.  Whether you are an expert or a beginner, there are things to learn and connections to be made, and the #SolarMOOC offers an infrastructure that benefits all levels of the solar industry by supporting connections from it's roots to fringe. 

Take a look at more upcoming lectures including Ezra Auerbach, Dr. Sean White, Andrew Truitt, and Hugo Mena here. 

You can register and join this lecture alone by clicking the link below (you will need the password to join- it is 9999).

 Parallel Solar String Design Solutions