In a nutshell, a Grid-Tie Inverter is a device that that can transform DC electricity (ie: Solar Panels, Wind Turbine, Battery Storage) into AC power that can be directly injected into your utility's electricity network (the power grid).

While high output (1000W ~ 5000W) inverters are available in the market, their prices ranges in the thousand's range and it is just too much of an upfront cost for anyone interested in green energy generation. In addition, because of the high output, a certified electrician will need to be hired to install the equipments and connect the cables.

With the invention of the SSI-200W Grid-Tie Inverter, connecting to the grid has never been this easy and affordable. All that has to be done is connect your DC Sources (Solar Panels or Wind Turbine) to the SSI-200W, and use the included cable (North American standard) to connect to any home AC electrical outlet, and you are feeding/selling green energy back into the grid at a premium rate (subject to local policies). This is the perfect start up solution for anyone interested in green energy generation as it is affordable and maintenance free.

In addition, the SSI-200W is stackable; meaning multiple unit of this device can be connected in parallel to generate a higher output.

Electrical Specifications - Output:

Electrical Specifications - Input:

Mechanical Specifications:

Features:

- Grid-Tied - sell green power directly back to the grid at a premium rate (depends on your location)
- Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) - optimize power output
- Plug and Play Design, simply plug into an outlet (GFI), no hard-wiring
- Stackable (connect in parallel for higher output)
- Island protection: Inverter will shut down during black outs.
- Simple and safe installation
- Reverse polarity protection
- Generates pure Sine Wave
- Constant Power Output
- Low distortion output on all ranges
- Allow different Power factor from loads
- Does not require rewiring of existing electronics
- LED indicators to reflect power output rate
- Compact and light weight design
- RoHS Compliant

Non- Reusable Power being consumed today

Reusable Power being generated for a better tomorrow and a brighter future

What is Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT)?

What is Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT)? MPPT is a techinque we implemented to get the maximum possible power from a solar panel. When trying to characterize the output of a solar panel mathematically, it can be represented by an IV-Curve (shown below). The equation for Power is P = IV. Where I is the Current, V is the Voltage, and P is the possible output Power. Each point on the curve is a possible combination for output power and our goal is to find the best combination to obtain maximum power.

In simple terms, we are trying to get the biggest rectangle to fit under this so called IV-Curve, the bigger rectangle we can fit, the more power we get. Below are graphs to help you understand the idea better. This is a comparison between inverters with and without MPPT on an 85W solar panel. Please note that different solar panels will have slightly different IV-Curves.

No Tracking Vs Tracking

Figure 1 No MPPT, with voltage fixed 17.5V P = 17.5V x 4.6A = 80.5W	Figure 2 With MPPT, amount of current and voltage to draw are calculated P = 17V x 4.95A = 84.15W

As we can see, Figure 2 is able to 84.15W with MPPT while in Figure 1, we can only get 80.5W. This is 4.5% increase in power output. Why do we care? Because solar panels are still quite expensive these days, and the increased power output will directly affect our return on investment (ROI). In addition, depending on weather, time of the day and amount of solar irradiation the panel receives, the IV curve will move along the Y-axis to reflect the possible increase / decrease in potential power output, and cause the maximum power point to shift along as well. Coming up are illustrations to visualize this idea.

IV-Curves Under different weather conditions

		Figure 3. Sunny, Clear Sky days in Summer 600 ~ 1000 W/m2   No MPPT MPPT Power 80.5W 84.15W Color Red & Yellow Yellow& Green Percent N/A +4.5%
		Figure 4. Scattered Clouds or Partly Cloudy days in Summer 300 ~ 600 W/m2   No MPPT MPPT Power 42.0W 46.4W Color Red & Yellow Yellow& Green Percent N/A +10.5%
		Figure 5. Cloudy or fog days, dawn or dusk in Summer 100 ~ 300 W/m2   No MPPT MPPT Power 5.25W 14.25W Color Red & Yellow Yellow& Green Percent N/A +171%

Figure 3 - 5 illustrate the power gain in different weather condition with MPPT compare to a non-tracking inverter that locks voltage at 17.5V. While 17.5V is randomly chosen, it does show what would happen in real life when there is not MPPT. Studies have shown, by making use of MPPT, there will be an average of 30% increase in power production. Since the maximum power point is a variable, we have implemented a tracking algorithm that utilizes the micro processing power of our inverter to calculate the optimum voltage and current to maximize our energy harvest.

Installation: 

Figure 1: AC Power

Figure 2: DC Input

1. Install in a low humidity and well-ventilated area. Remove all flammable objects.
2. Connect the Solar Panel, Battery or Wind Turbine's DC supply cables to the DC input terminal of the inverter as shown in Figure 2. Wind Turbine installations will require respective charge controllers and dump loads
3. Connect the inverter to a wall socket with the supplied AC Power Cord as shown in Figure 1.