SolarEdge and Digi International Collaborate on a Full Connectivity Solution for Photovoltaic Systems

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The industry's first solar inverter with embedded ZigBee connectivity wirelessly retrieves

SolarEdge's panel-level PV monitoring data

MINNETONKA, Minn. and HERZLIYA, Israel

(Feb. 17, 2010)- Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) and SolarEdge today announced their collaboration on full connectivity solutions for photovoltaic (PV) systems, including data harvesting from revenue-grade power meters,PV invertermesh networking and future interaction with the Smart Grid.

Digi International’s vast range of wireless connectivity solutions enables SolarEdge to improve the retrieval of inverter and panel performance data fromPV systems. Among the solutions that are now available, SolarEdge is using Digi’s XBee-PRO to provide the industry’s first solar inverter with embedded ZigBee connectivity. SolarEdge continuously collects data from each solar panel and transmits it without added communication wires from panels to inverters. This solution - providing wireless network and remote connectivity between solar inverters - allows simple access to high-resolution, performance-monitoring data.

“There are many limitations to wire line system configurations, including higher failure rates, added costs and labor, as well as compromised aesthetic appearance,” said Lior Handelsman, vice president of product strategy at SolarEdge. “Our collaboration with Digi has meant that we can now overcome these challenges and has allowed us to offer a comprehensive, robust and cost-effective solution, which simplifies installation procedures and prepares system owners for future Smart Grid interaction.”

A wire line communication between inverters is not ideal in many situations, with particular difficulties connecting multiple inverters in large commercial installations. At residential sites, Ethernet cables and ducts are often required to gap between the inverter and the remote router. By embedding ZigBee connectivity into each inverter, Digi enables SolarEdge to create a self-healing mesh network between all of the site’s inverters which eliminates line of sight issues.  The inverters can also be easily connected to any local area network (LAN) using any ZigBee equipped gateway with cellular, Wi-Fi or Ethernet connections, such as Digi’s ConnectPort X gateways.

This distributed architecture approach also contributes to higher reliability due to the lack of cables and connectors and lower susceptibility to lightning hits, in addition to the reduced costs related to cabling, ducting and labor.

For more information about Digi, visitwww.digi.com. For more information about SolarEdge, visitwww.solaredge.com

About Digi International

Digi International is making wireless M2M easy by developing reliable products and solutions to connect and securely manage local or remote electronic devices over networks or via the Web. Digi offers the highest levels of performance, flexibility and quality, and markets its products through a global network of distributors and resellers, systems integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For more information, visit Digi's Web site at www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444.

About SolarEdge

SolarEdge provides the world's first end-to-end DistributedSolar Power HarvestingandPV MonitoringSolution, allowing maximum energy production at a lower cost per watt. The company works with industry-leading partners to embed its active electronics directly into PV panels. The SolarEdge PowerBoxes™ are DC-DCpower optimizersthat perform MPPT per individual panel while monitoring performance of each panel and communicating across existing power lines. Moreover, PowerBoxes always maintain a fixed DC string voltage, allowing optimal efficiency of the SolarEdge multi-string inverter, which is tailor made to work with power optimizers. As a result, the SolarEdge system provides more power from any given installation, eliminates design constraints, provides complete panel-level and whole-system visibility for monitoring and maintenance alerts, solves all safety hazards and provides anti-theft mechanisms, all while reducing the cost of energy. SolarEdge is online atwww.solaredge.com  

Press Contacts:

Jan McBride
Digi International
952-912-3473

Matt Serra
Mulberry Marketing Communications
312-664-1532

News Source : SolarEdge and Digi International Collaborate on a Full Connectivity Solution for Photovoltaic Systems