Inventor Chad Maglaque of Clarian Technologies has a new product that is pretty simple and affordable. For about $600, you will be able to buy an innovative, modest-sized solar panel system at a home improvement or electronics store, transport it home in your car, and install it in a sunny location yourself in a short time. The solar panel will connect to your home's electrical wiring directly through an adapted outlet, and while the sun is shining, electricity will be fed into your home's wiring. Your electric meter will be slowing down as the power needs for operating lights and appliances are first met by solar-generated wattage and then supplemented from the utility company's power grid.
If it sounds practical and easy to you, that is by design! Indeed,Clarian Technologies, a Seattle-based startup with an impressive group of seasoned executives calling the shots, plans to have what the company calls its Sunfish (TM) solar power module in production later this fall and in stores by early next year. Indeed, the company is accepting pre-orders now while this "plug-in power" system is undergoing pre-production evaluation and testing by Underwriters Laboratories.
Maglaque, who also invented a vertical-axis home wind power device expected to hit store shelves in late 2011, believes that small-scale electricity generation is the ideal way for individuals in every home – renters and homeowners alike – to do their part to harness renewable energy. It's not about supplying the power grid with electrical power: all the electricity generated is used in your home. These small-scale appliances are about circumventing the barrier of high installation costs.
The patent-pending Sunfish system has two components that accompany the solar panel unit: a microinverter power module that is installed in place of the outlet where you intend to plug the solar panel's power cord as well as a circuit monitor that would simply plug into one other outlet on the same circuit. (Both of these can be viewed on the product video.) The Wi-Fi-enabled circuit monitor interfaces with software such as Google PowerMeter for web-based tracking and managing the home's system. Although the circuit monitor would need to be plugged into the same circuit as the microinverter power module, the electricity flowing into the wiring from the solar panel can power any light or appliance throughout the home.
The Sunfish panels generate up to 200 watts of electricity. Up to five Sunfish panels may be used together to generate up to 1,000 Watts (1 kilowatt) per day, a level that is inherently safe for home wiring, as the wiring in a typical home is designed for 1,600 watts, the maximum power levels of air conditioners and space heaters. By comparison, the company's Jellyfish wind power appliance will be able to generate up to 400 watts, based on 12 mph winds.
The key to Clarian's Sunfish system is a microinverter that has been designed to operate in the presence of very low DC voltage, such as the electricity that would be generated by a modest-sized solar panel. Inverters are electronic devices that change direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC), that is, household current. A microinverter is different from a conventional inverter, such as the inverts travelers use to create AC power from a vehicle's 12V DC power. While a regular inverter has a minimum threshold of DC voltage that needs to be present to enable it to operate at all, the low-voltage microinverter used with the Clarian solar and wind generators continue to operate even with a trace amount of DC power. In practical application, for example, a microinverter is designed to keep working even if a cloud passing overhead significantly reduces the amount of current generated. A regular inverter would simply not work at all to produce AC electricity, whereas the microinverter used with the Sunfish system would continue to produce an AC output, albeit a smaller amount.
The ultra-simple product design of the Sunfish system offers an attractive solution to the homeowner or small business owner who is unwilling to make the sizeable investment of $20,000 to $30,000 (or more) for professionally-installed roof-top solar energy panels that tie into the power company's grid. Realistically – and if you don't sell the house and move – it can take 10 to 15 years (typically) to recover the high initial investment costs of extensive roof-top solar collectors. With the Sunfish, renters and homeowners alike will be able to enjoy energy cost savings and will not lose their investment when they move, as the Sunfish panels and components can move with them. Depending on electricity costs and tax incentives, the Sunfish panels can pay for themselves in savings in a few as four years.
Clarian has entered its solar and wind power generators several contests for clean energy technology, including General Electric's Ecomagination Challenge. The GE Ecomagination program has committed $200 million to invest in promising innovations.
