3 ms·

If you’re willing to put multiple MPPTs on a panel, then I imagine the benefits of higher efficiency multilayer panels are actually amplified a bit. You can spe

by amluto 3y ago

If you’re willing to put multiple MPPTs on a panel, then I imagine the benefits of higher efficiency multilayer panels are actually amplified a bit. You can spend a bit more on the panel, but you need fewer panels for the same capacity, and panels are getting cheap enough that the balance of the system (mounting, wires between panels, etc) are quite significant. Who is the “we” that builds these tiny MPPTs? I’m curious.

morphle 3y ago
"We" is my small 20 year old Metamorph Research Institute and our spinoff companies Morphle Inc and Fiberhood Coöperation. Apologies, my websites are down and I still need to publish the science papers on the tiny MPPT chips and microcontrollers. We also design the largest chips [1] and I build Enernet microgrids [2] based on our chips. We are chip designers and made a 1 dollar cent 64 bit 8 core microprocessor with MPPT and bidirectional buck/boost flyback inverters built-in. This nanoinverter can take the <0.5V of a single solar cell and convert it to (for example) 6V. Because these nanoinverters are networked over the DC conducters to each other, they can aggregate their output voltage to 48V, 110V or much higher so the conductors become much thinner. With all the power transistors, opamps, capacitors and diodes integrated into the chip you save more than $50 on discreet component MPPT and microinverters per panel while also boosting the MPPT per cell thus mitigating almost all shading losses. The same chip can also charge/discharge (lithium and other) batteries. You can get 20 times more cycling charges out of Li-ion this way but you also save on the charging inverters. A single nano-inverter chip can take the output of one or more solar cells and charge li-ion cell, saving you half the number of nano-inverter chip in a total system. I still need $50K investment to start the mass production of the new model 180nm chips, that will drop the manufacturing cost to 1 cent. Sadly Ycombinator won't fund me as they dislike single founders and dislike funding hardware startups.If you know anyone who can help us with sales or funding please send me an email. A competitor already manufactors solar panels with microinverters for strings of cells (6-8 per panel) but their panels cost so much more that it is not worth it. Our nanoinvertors are two orders of magnitude cheaper. [1] https://vimeo.com/731037615 https://vimeo.com/731037615 [2] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Merik-Voswinkel/publication/309254511_Fiberhood_Smart_Grid/links/5807410c08ae5ad1881691e3/Fiberhood-Smart-Grid.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Merik-Voswinkel/publica...
- jbay808 3y ago
  Do you have a spec sheet for your MPPT chip that you can share? The white paper and video presentation that you linked appear to be completely unrelated.
  - morphle 3y ago
    I am writing the datasheet for the reconfigurable MPPT bidirectional buck/boost flyback invertor microcontroller SoC chips as we speak [1]. Do you have an email I can send it to? The older white paper is very much related, it describes the large power router chips, the MPPT nano-invertor microcontroller chips for individual solar cells are just a recent adddition to our system of line chips. The video presentation is about the wafer scale integration, a million core giant version of the same microprocessor as the tiny MPPT chips, so they are very much related. [1] Morphle MNI003 datasheet: input voltage: 0.01V-6.01V (solar cell or battery input) output voltage: 0.6V-12V (aggregated or single output) can power up from solar cell or battery, 0,02W External inductor (30-100 μH) needed. Builtin 8 opamps, 4 power mosfets, 3 capacitors, 3 diodes Forms a programmable reconfigurable MPPT inverter or a Li-ion (all 6 chemistries) battery charger and discharger. 180 Mhz 64 Bit Microprocessor made from 8 bit ALU slices. Can be configured at runtime as 8 x 8b it, 4 x 16 bit, 2 x 32 bit and 1 x 64 bit processors. Microcode processor executes X86-64, ArmV8, Risc-V instructions and Python and Squeak bytecodes natively. 4K OTP memory 16K SRAM SPI interface to external flash one-wire network over power input and output wire two-wire 10baseT ethernet to wire all inverters into networks up to 10240 microcontrollers networked MNI003 chips can aggregate output voltages up to 240V DC
    - jbay808 3y ago
      Thanks; I'm working on products in this area and not especially satisfied by the parts available. Especially as Analog seems to be abandoning their micro-MPPT IC product line. My email is jacob at jbaylessconsulting dot ca. One of the common issues with solar micro-MPPT is EMI emissions. Have you tested for compliance with emitted radio-frequency noise standards?
      - 3y ago

by amluto 3y ago

morphle 3y ago

"We" is my small 20 year old Metamorph Research Institute and our spinoff companies Morphle Inc and Fiberhood Coöperation. Apologies, my websites are down and I still need to publish the science papers on the tiny MPPT chips and microcontrollers. We also design the largest chips [1] and I build Enernet microgrids [2] based on our chips. We are chip designers and made a 1 dollar cent 64 bit 8 core microprocessor with MPPT and bidirectional buck/boost flyback inverters built-in. This nanoinverter can take the <0.5V of a single solar cell and convert it to (for example) 6V. Because these nanoinverters are networked over the DC conducters to each other, they can aggregate their output voltage to 48V, 110V or much higher so the conductors become much thinner. With all the power transistors, opamps, capacitors and diodes integrated into the chip you save more than $50 on discreet component MPPT and microinverters per panel while also boosting the MPPT per cell thus mitigating almost all shading losses. The same chip can also charge/discharge (lithium and other) batteries. You can get 20 times more cycling charges out of Li-ion this way but you also save on the charging inverters. A single nano-inverter chip can take the output of one or more solar cells and charge li-ion cell, saving you half the number of nano-inverter chip in a total system. I still need $50K investment to start the mass production of the new model 180nm chips, that will drop the manufacturing cost to 1 cent. Sadly Ycombinator won't fund me as they dislike single founders and dislike funding hardware startups.If you know anyone who can help us with sales or funding please send me an email. A competitor already manufactors solar panels with microinverters for strings of cells (6-8 per panel) but their panels cost so much more that it is not worth it. Our nanoinvertors are two orders of magnitude cheaper. [1] https://vimeo.com/731037615 https://vimeo.com/731037615 [2] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Merik-Voswinkel/publication/309254511_Fiberhood_Smart_Grid/links/5807410c08ae5ad1881691e3/Fiberhood-Smart-Grid.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Merik-Voswinkel/publica...

jbay808 3y ago
Do you have a spec sheet for your MPPT chip that you can share? The white paper and video presentation that you linked appear to be completely unrelated.
- morphle 3y ago
  I am writing the datasheet for the reconfigurable MPPT bidirectional buck/boost flyback invertor microcontroller SoC chips as we speak [1]. Do you have an email I can send it to? The older white paper is very much related, it describes the large power router chips, the MPPT nano-invertor microcontroller chips for individual solar cells are just a recent adddition to our system of line chips. The video presentation is about the wafer scale integration, a million core giant version of the same microprocessor as the tiny MPPT chips, so they are very much related. [1] Morphle MNI003 datasheet: input voltage: 0.01V-6.01V (solar cell or battery input) output voltage: 0.6V-12V (aggregated or single output) can power up from solar cell or battery, 0,02W External inductor (30-100 μH) needed. Builtin 8 opamps, 4 power mosfets, 3 capacitors, 3 diodes Forms a programmable reconfigurable MPPT inverter or a Li-ion (all 6 chemistries) battery charger and discharger. 180 Mhz 64 Bit Microprocessor made from 8 bit ALU slices. Can be configured at runtime as 8 x 8b it, 4 x 16 bit, 2 x 32 bit and 1 x 64 bit processors. Microcode processor executes X86-64, ArmV8, Risc-V instructions and Python and Squeak bytecodes natively. 4K OTP memory 16K SRAM SPI interface to external flash one-wire network over power input and output wire two-wire 10baseT ethernet to wire all inverters into networks up to 10240 microcontrollers networked MNI003 chips can aggregate output voltages up to 240V DC
  - jbay808 3y ago
    Thanks; I'm working on products in this area and not especially satisfied by the parts available. Especially as Analog seems to be abandoning their micro-MPPT IC product line. My email is jacob at jbaylessconsulting dot ca. One of the common issues with solar micro-MPPT is EMI emissions. Have you tested for compliance with emitted radio-frequency noise standards?
    - 3y ago