eIQ Energy declared that Granite Construction has installed and put into use a new 1.2 MW solar facility at its Coalinga, California, located aggregate and hot mix facility.
250-watt DC-to-DC converter module. Credit: eIQ Energy
The solar PV installation complete with the vBoost parallel system manufactured by eIQ Energy is considered to be the biggest solar power production facility to incorporate and utilize distributed power system.
Granite Construction has chosen the vBoost DC Parallel System from eIQ Energy to improve the output voltage of the thin film copper indium selenium solar modules supplied by Solar Frontier to the optimal point for the Siemens supplied solar array central inverters, which supply the generated solar power to the power grid. The installation when complete will meet around 50% of the power requirements of the Granite facility. The parallel solar technology of eIQ Energy has enabled Granite Construction to make a notable of level of material and labor savings. It avoided the expenditure on materials such as combiner boxes and wiring and saved on the installation costs required for such works in conventional series-wiring construction designs.
According to Oliver Janssen, eIQ Energy’s chief business development officer, the concluded project will prove the cost benefits offered by the use of distributed electronics to link solar modules connected in parallel. The solution provided by the company is cost-effective to install when compared to a series architecture installation. Lastly, the vBoost DC Parallel System provides long-term functional benefits by cutting-down the problems such as panel mismatch, soil related conditions and the shading effects and other related issues that are associated with series wire solar panels and bringing down their power production capabilities.