IEEE PI2 Austin, May 27, 2025 From Strings to Cells: The Evolution of Power Electronics for Home Energy Systems
IEEE PI2 Austin, May 27, 2025 From Strings to Cells: The Evolution of Power Electronics for Home Energy Systems
IEEE PI2 Austin, April 22, 2024, Tech Meeting In-Person 6 PM Central / 7 PM Eastern at Venue Change for this meeting: Dinner Provided Burns & MacDonnell, 6200 Bridge Point Pkwy Unit 400Austin, TX 78730 Abstract: Residential solar has undergone a quiet revolution in power electronics—shifting from centralized string inverters to module-level power electronics (MLPE) like optimizers and microinverters. Each step aimed to improve efficiency, reliability, and control. But current systems remain constrained by rigid architectures and inefficiencies at the edge. This saturation in technology has stalled the progress of home solar and storage technology, but also invites opportunities for new architecture. This talk explores the evolution of these technologies, the design trade-offs behind each generation, and how our approach could reshape home energy systems for greater resilience, modularity, and intelligence. It concludes with a discussion of a new "cellular" power inverter architecture that preserves the best of the legacy approaches while enabling home energy users and installers unprecedented flexibility and cost advantages. Details: Dinner and soft beverages will be provided for those with reservations. If you do not have a reservation you will not be able to eat. Cost, to defray the room, dinner and refreshments cost: Thank you in advance: IF REGISTERED IN ADVANCE (Before May 20th, 2025) Members and Non-Members: Select Register & Pay now, $25.00 Paypal from your credit card when registering - you do not need a Paypal account to use it. Click through to the credit card/debit page. OR Select Register Now and Pay Later and pay $25.00 cash or credit/debit with Square at the meeting. Please register in advance before April 15th (skip the payment) IEEE Student Members: Free (must register in advance before April 22nd with your IEEE member number) Skip the payment All registrants After May 19th, 2025: Pay $30.00 at the the meeting in cash Attendees must be registered before the event for food accommodations. Unfortunately, we are charged more for the meals after the advance registration date For PDH hours, please email the PI2 Secretary, [email protected]. Speaker(s): Patrick Chapman, Burns & MacDonnell, 6200 Bridge Point Pkwy, Unit 400,Austin, TX 78730, Austin, Texas, United States, 78730