Optimizing PV Systems July 2014 - Part 1: Inverters | Page 10

Enphase Energy Case Study :
Empowering Solar Technology
Enphase technology is a totally new and different way
to design, install and maintain solar PV installations.
And the outcome is a more productive, smarter, safer
and more reliable system.

platform, collecting energy production data over the existing
electrical wiring and sending data over the Internet to
Enlighten.

Not all PV systems are made equal. In the past, the
accepted industry standard was to install string inverters. An
alternative way has been to look at each module as an
individual unit, powered by a microinverter and operating
independently within the solar array. It took years before the
first commercially viable microinverter launched into the
market in 2008.
From that moment on Enphase began to change the solar
landscape, and the Enphase System has seen rapid
adoption globally with more than 5 million units now shipped
worldwide. Unlike standard inverters with dozens of models
and types to meet the varying needs of a PV system,
Enphase offers two models of microinverter, the M215 and
the just released M250, to meet all design and installation
needs of arrays with different sizes and features. Enphase
makes use of three advanced components, microinverters,
Envoy Communications Gateway and Enlighten monitoring
platform, that work together to make solar PV significantly
smarter, safer, more productive, and reliable than traditional
string and central inverter-based systems.
Enphase microinverters installed beneath each solar panel,
maximize the production of each panel and converts the DC
( F