Oct 28 2009
Launches the Industry’s First Complete Power Harvesting and Management Solution for Utility Class Solar Power Plants
Satcon Technology Corporation (NASDAQ CM: SATC), a leading provider of utility scale power solutions for the renewable energy market, today announced the general availability of Satcon Solstice, the industry’s first complete utility grade solar PV solution for large scale solar power plants.
Satcon Solstice revolutionizes energy production, while utilizing traditional solar design. It delivers fine grained power harvesting and control with advanced utility ready grid interconnection, and will boost total power production by 5-12 percent over designs using standard inverters while at the same time reduce overall system material costs.
“Satcon Solstice sets the new standard for large scale, utility class solar PV power production.” said Steve Rhoades, Chief Executive Officer of Satcon. “By addressing the performance of the entire system, Solstice introduces a highly optimized energy harvest architecture and combines it with advanced grid interconnection and utility control capabilities. This delivers significant performance gains, improved system safety and reliability, and an overall reduction in balance of system costs.”
Building on Satcon’s leading solar PV inverter technologies, Solstice™ is the next generation of solar PV power harvesting. It is the industry’s first complete power conversion system, utilizing our next generation inverter and unique subcombiners, called SSBs, which are populated with Satcon’s proprietary dc to dc power converters. The fine grained harvesting of each panel string provided by the dc to dc conversion stage, coupled with a highly efficient inverter design, insures the Solstice platform will deliver more power over the lifetime of the pv system, while lowering the overall installed cost of the of the power plant. Solstice™ will also be the company’s first solution released with the full suite of utility features and functionality designed by Satcon, that among many benefits, enable the role of the inverter in the Smart Grid.
“Solstice represents the next generation of solar power production and is a critical link in the integration of large scale solar onto today’s utility grid network,” said Dr. Leo Casey, Chief Technology Officer of Satcon. “Traditionally, designers have been chasing fractional improvements in throughput efficiency out of their power plants. With Solstice, traditional losses from shading, soiling and panel mismatch are virtually eliminated, and we see power production gains that range from 5-12%. Solstice also introduces the next generation of advanced control capabilities that will enable utilities to leverage their solar installations as proper dispatachable assets on the grid.”
Satcon Solstice is now available North America and will be available in Europe and Asia in the first half of 2010.
Source: http://www.satcon.com/