At its core, SolarEdge is an inverter supplier specializing in power optimizers designed to be efficient at maximizing the electricity generation of your solar system. The non-photovoltaic part of the solar PV system, SolarEdge inverters are designed to optimize the solar PV system’s efficiency by better managing the power and extracting more performance from the electrical side of the solar system. SolarEdge provides inverters for residential & commercial solar PV systems, EV charging solutions, battery storage solutions, and performance monitoring & control solutions.
Founded in 2006 by electrical engineers and R&D experts in solar, the company is a technology-centric operation. Inverters & power optimizers are an essential part of solar photovoltaic systems. The SolarEdge monitoring system cannot be purchased separately without purchasing the SoalrEdge inverter; therefore, this article is a review of the solar PV, storage, and EV charger solutions of SolarEdge from the viewpoint of its monitoring services. Clearly, SolarEdge has grown from its earlier focus on the electrical and technical side of the operations into the software and monitoring aspects, which shows SolarEdge’s commitment to improving the performance and delivering value to their solar customers. SolarEdge’s ambition is to be the solution that helps to increase renewable energy throughout the home, business, or community, the core of their business goals.
Performance Monitoring
Performance monitoring is essential for every solar installation, whether a home or a business. Monitoring ensures that your solar panels generate the amount of electricity they are supposed to, as specified by the solar panel manufacturer. And that the complete solar PV system performs as designed & installed by your solar installer. In other words, the monitoring platform ensures the solar PV solution meets the benchmark performance.
Each solar PV system is designed for a maximum capacity indicated as a kilowatt-peak. This kilowatt-peak is the maximum amount of power the solar PV system will generate if sunlight is fully available for that location at that given time. This is often not the case because of cloud cover, dusty or humid conditions, or dirty solar panels. Because of such factors, the maximum amount of sunlight considered in the test conditions does not apply in real life. How then would you measure the performance of your solar system? The correct method is to constantly monitor the amount of sunlight that reaches the solar PV panel and compare it to the expected performance from the solar PV panel for this amount of sunlight. The amount of electricity generated by the solar PV panel, the amount of energy stored in the battery at any given time, the amount of electricity supplied to the grid, and the amount of electricity drawn from the grid are the various flows of electricity that need to be monitored. SolarEdge allows you to visualize this complex flow of electricity to assess the performance of your system, which is vital for your understanding of your solar + battery storage solution.
Installer
From the installer’s point of view, managing several residential installations simultaneously is a challenge. It requires providing customers with services to maximize the amount of electricity generated by their solar PV system. This means taking corrective and proactive actions to maintain several systems’ performance. In addition, viewing all the residential systems across their region allows installers and operation & maintenance (O&M) service providers to ensure that their teams work efficiently.
SolarEdge’s monitoring platform is designed for installers to monitor the solar PV systems in their operational region. It gives a complete view of all the systems’ performance and the financial performance of each installation. It is beneficial for installers with a large customer base to view site level and regional level reporting and analytics. It is also possible to create automated alerts and export reports for further analysis. These features enable integrators, installers, maintenance staff, and homeowners to improve their performance; it allows the maximization of electricity generated across the entire region. The benefit of remotely responding to and shutting down solar PV system inverters during an emergency is extremely valuable.
Home Owner
A residential customer needs to visualize the energy generated, consumed, and stored. Often large spreadsheets with facts and figures do not sufficiently communicate the capabilities of the solar system. The graphics in SolarEdge’s monitoring system helps the residential customers better understand their consumption needs and the generation of solar during the day, the amount of energy supplied to the grid, and the amount of power drawn back from the grid. The amount of electricity provided may be easy to grasp. Still, the time of day when the most electricity is used and the time of day when the most electricity is generated is a critical factor. It helps to see that in a graphic format to better understand it.
mySolarEdge is provided as a service with the inverter as a part of the product for its lifetime. The inverter communicates to the cloud via an ethernet cable, WiFi, or, where required, a 4G modem connected to the internet. This data then resides in the cloud and can be retrieved to analyze. Monitoring the amount of electricity supplied to the grid requires energy or current clamps fixed around the wires connecting your home to the grid. These clamps need to be bought in addition to the inverter to enable the monitoring of your home’s electricity consumption. This expands the functionality of SolarEdge’s monitoring beyond the solar PV system. The amount of electricity generated by the solar panels and the electricity supplied to the grid is clearly measured. The additional functionality of these current clamps is that the inverter can be programmed to limit the amount of electricity exported to the grid. This functionality is called zero export. SolarEdge is one of the few manufacturers supplying inverters with this functionality embedded into this inverter. The zero export functionality prioritizes self-consumption over net metering benefits. This can be important for grid-connected storage & solar PV systems where net-metering policies do not apply.
Commercial
For commercial operations, supplying electricity at a constant and previously agreed-upon power and energy value to the off-taker, is the essential service they provide and forms the basis of their power purchase agreement. Therefore, it is vital to know that they adhere to the contractual obligations. Here SolarEdge performs the additional function of measuring and ensuring adherence to design specifications & performance commitments. The monitoring data and the corresponding reports created by the SolarEdge monitoring system are submitted to receive payments for the power supplied as part of their contracted performance commitments. In addition to being a measurement of the power provided, it serves as an optimization method to increase performance.
Satellite Based Performance Ratio
SolarEdge also provides the service of satellite-based performance ratio monitoring. Usually, the comparison data for solar performance is based on sensors located at the site. While this is an accurate performance measure, these physical sensors have downsides, requiring regular inspection & calibration. A satellite-based system uses the live data available of solar irradiance at the location. Combined with historical data for that location, this live data measures irradiance and weather for a given day. As a result, an accurate estimation of the solar PV system’s generation and performance can be made. SolarEdge uses the data from SolarGIS, a reputed solar-focused geographical information system (GIS) data provider.
SolarEdge Integrated EV Charging
SolarEdge has taken the next step toward building a solution that integrates solar and related energy requirements for homes. They are now expanding into EV charging. Their inverter technology is central to their concept of solar solutions. Thus, SolarEdge has used the inverter as the core of the solar installation and then enabled the inverter to manage battery storage and electrical charging through the same device. For a homeowner or a residential installer, this is a valuable addition that is flexibly applicable to multiple energy management requirements. SolarEdge inverter’s integration with EV charging out of the box and future-ready preparation for integration with smart home devices puts SolarEdge in a category of devices that usually do not cross the lines between solar, storage, EV, and Smart Homes. Nevertheless, this is the correct solution for homeowners and must be considered part of a fully integrated energy solution.
SolarEdge a Dependable Solution
Solar edge has been and continues to remain one of the leading brands of solar power and renewable energy products. By providing solar monitoring systems, they will continue to be relevant and essential for the future of renewable energy in North America. This bodes well for existing customers as well as new customers. Therefore, it is important to consider SolarEdge as a vital part of your home’s energy system that can transform your current energy consumption model and your home’s carbon footprint quite drastically, particularly, if you do or are likely to use electric vehicles. In addition, an integrated smart EV charging solution is highly recommended, even though you may not have yet purchased the electric vehicle. Therefore, we wholeheartedly recommend SolarEdge for your home.