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Solving the triangle for solar mass adoption – Cost, Efficiency and Simplicity

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.

Call for proposal

H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1

Coordinator

UBIK SOLUTIONS OU
Net EU contribution
€ 50 000,00
Address
REGATI PST 1
11911 TALLINN
Estonia

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Eesti Eesti Põhja-Eesti
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 71 429,00