SolarIndustryMag.com: Fraunhofer Receives SunShot Funds For Plug-And-Play Solar Efforts

by SI Staff on Monday 17 December 2012

The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) has been selected to receive project funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SunShot Initiative, a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

CSE's five-year, $11.7 million research project focuses on the development of plug-and-play solar photovoltaic systems that can be purchased, installed and connected by homeowners without the need to engage outside consultants or contractors. This project is part of a larger $21 million DOE investment aimed at developing technology solutions that reduce the soft costs of residential solar PV systems.

With DOE investment, CSE says it will create technologies, components, systems and standards that reduce the cost of residential solar. The institute plans to leverage efforts by Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to accelerate the deployment of solar PV systems.

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	EUC	Reply
	17 Dec : 12:36
	Fraunhofer Receives SunShot Funds For Plug-And-Play Solar Efforts I'm working on the topic for quite some time. The hurdles: - 12V devices are needed for a small efficient DIY system, I came over some TV-sets and had to check some radios, most is available for recreational vehicles, an of course 12V for illumination is easy - 12V plugs are not professional, the installation is not very easy if you have a parallel 230V grid. - solar controllers are no suited for LiFePO4 - distributed systems with multiple PV-panels and batteries lack intelligent controllers