Project description
Breakthrough inverter technology maximises energy harvesting from solar panels
Solar cell technology is booming worldwide, but despite advances in solar panel development, inverter technology has not kept pace. To enable mass adoption of solar energy at higher scales, inverters should satisfy three requirements: ease of installation, high efficiency without shading losses and affordability. The EU-funded OptiVerter project is supporting Estonia-based company UBIK Solutions in developing technology that significantly enhances energy harvesting from solar panels. The technology, called OptiVerter®, is a hybrid inverter solution that integrates a microinverter and a power optimiser. The plug-and-play device is more efficient compared to traditional microinverters under partially shaded conditions, is affordable and offers users the possibility of installing it in unconventional locations, such as their balcony.
Objective
More people are looking towards solar as the best option to comply with EU energy efficiency targets for buildings. Therefore, time is ripe for solar to become a residential mainstay. However, to reach solar mass adoption – the triangle of solar should be satisfied.
The triangle of solar consists of simplicity, efficiency and cost. Today, solar panels satisfy the triangle, however a significant bottleneck exists in the industry for energy conversion (inverters) and instalment. The current solutions available satisfy, at best, two aspects.
UBIK’s OptiVerter® technology gets the most out of the sun by making solar simple, cheap and shade tolerant. The OptiVerter® Technology serves as a unique combination of both incumbent MLPE technologies (Micro-Inverters & Power Optimizers). It retains the design flexibility inherent to microinverters and shading tolerance of power optimizers while being as simple as plugging in a kettle.
The global module level power electronics market is projected to grow significantly at 35% CAGR reaching €2.25bn by 2022. UBIK enters the market at a significant competitive advantage to the current solutions for the niche but growing segment of balcony solar. This is because of UBIK’s potential to disrupt Solar’s traditional business model (B2B) by offering the solution directly to people wishing to install solar on small-scale in unconventional locations (e.g. balcony).
UBIK Solutions’ team’s capability and technological uniqueness has been rewarded with multiple awards and recognitions. These range from winning the national PowerUP! competition to being awarded the highly coveted HighTech XL accelerator’s position. The progress made by UBIK has culminated in partnership interests by various key players in the MLPE market today.
UBIK Solutions estimates 35% of the new residential solar installed in Europe will use OptiVerter® technology for their balcony solar installations reaching €50 million in annual sales by 2022.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy solar energy
- engineering and technology environmental engineering ecosystem-based management climatic change mitigation
- social sciences economics and business business and management business models
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels energy conversion
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
11911 TALLINN
Estonia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.