SPI Blog, Part 3: eIQ and the Distributed PV Electronics Field

eIQ is one of many startups that have emerged in the last few years with an eye toward innovation in the photovoltaic inverter / balance of system market. The global inverter market is sizable and estimated at $2.4 billion in 2009.

The central inverter incumbents include SMA, SatCon, Fronius, Xantrex, PV Powered, and many more.

Here is a list of most of the startups chasing this market:

Rather than build the next central inverter, most of these firms are trying to distribute the electronics in the solar installation and they all have their own little twist on how they are performing that trick.

eIQ uses a DC-to-DC boost architecture that relies on parallel interconnection, ostensibly simplifying the design and reducing the amount of wire, combiner boxes and labor required to install a system. Like almost all of the firms on the list above – eIQ distributes the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) function and corrects for panel mismatch caused by shading, soling or degradation. This can yield significant more energy energy harvest, from 5 percent to 30 percent, depending on the enthusiasm of the marketing person pontificating.

I spoke with Michael Lamb, VP of Business Development and Gene Krzywinski the CTO of the firm.

The early stage startup, funded with $10 million from NGEN and Robert Bosch Venture Capital, already has some market traction – evidenced by its work with Signet Solar, an amorphous silicon panel vendor. "Signet is making a choice to bundle their products with ours because of the systems issues we address," said Krzywinski. 

The CTO continued: "We allow more Signet panels to be connected per bus – 75 Signet panels per DC bus (9 to 10 kilowatts per string) versus 4 to 5 kilowatts with other architectures," adding, "The others in the market control the current and eIQ works more in the voltage domain."

Pricing at small quantities is 40 cents per watt for the company's system alone. The customer does have to include a central inverter but the company claims that the savings that eIQ provides are in the Balance of System budget which includes wiring, combiner boxes, junction boxes, conduit and labor saying "That budget is bigger than the inverter budget – up to $1 per watt," said Krzywinski.

In addition to working with Signet, the firm has partnered with PV Powered.  There were First Solar panels in the demo room as well.

The bottom line according to Signet is that "eIQ helps the partner inverter become more efficient."