Climate concerns, coal consumption and rising energy costs are driving dramatic changes in the global energy landscape. As technology continues to advance, solar energy is gradually developing into a major and economically viable renewable energy source. Facing this trend, Silicon Labs (also known as “Silicon Technology”) and its partner Tigo Energy have developed a photovoltaic rapid shutdown system (PVRSS) that supports wireless connectivity based on the EFR32BG21 Bluetooth low energy SoC. The data is transmitted wirelessly, which greatly improves the security of the system.
Founded in 2007, Tigo Energy is a leading manufacturer of Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics), empowering consumers to gain the benefits of sustainable clean energy. The systems developed by Tigo support customers on seven continents, maximizing energy production and safety while reducing the operating costs of photovoltaic systems. Tigo is delivering innovative solar energy conversion and storage solutions to the fastest growing direct current (DC) power optimizer and microinverter markets in the solar industry.
Design Challenges Designers need to introduce a feature-rich multi-protocol SoC platform to ensure the robustness of the fire safety product line, long-range wireless connectivity, and generation of rapid shutdown signals and meet the US NEC Rapid Shutdown specification for rapid shutdown safety code No. 1 reaction.
Solution Silicon Labs provides Tigo with the EFR32BG21 (BG21) Bluetooth Low Energy SoC solution designed to increase processing power, RF performance and reduce active current. The rich analog and digital peripherals embedded in the Bluetooth low energy SoC, powerful memory options, and Bluetooth transceiver capabilities with good receive sensitivity will help Tigo add more application value to its products.
The development results in the resilience of remote connectivity in harsh environments, a high-throughput Digital Twin of a single photovoltaic solar site, which enables historical data logging and advanced analytics by automatically detecting failures and facilitating communication with the cloud. Implement emergency shutdown switching.
Interoperability and Choice: Key to the Tigo B2B Business Model
As an enabler of innovation and flexibility, Tigo’s products are multi-module architectures rather than wall-and-garden integrated product suites, where customers can choose MLPE functions and hardware devices – inverters and modules. The company’s customers range from residential and commercial to multi-megawatt utility plants and deploy Tigo electronics on their PV panels for performance optimization, fast shutdown and granular module-level monitoring to track throughout the system lifecycle output.
Key to its business model is a strong B2B ecosystem with various installers, where the installer acts as an energy advisor and liaises with residential or commercial owners.
Tigo Provides Bluetooth Low Energy Support for Photovoltaic Fast Shutdown Systems
As solar power gains momentum, the National Fire Protection Association recognizes the impact fire hazards can have on human life. As a result, new regulations for rooftop solar PV systems, introduced and effective in 2020, require the voltage to drop below 30VDC in less than 30 seconds in the event of a fast shutdown.
During a vendor evaluation process that included five candidates, Tigo chose to integrate Silicon Labs’ EFR32BG21 Bluetooth Low Energy SoC into its Safety TS4 Flex MLPE product line for fast shutdown and power-on switching. The BG21 is an ideal choice as it supports robust long-range RF communications, its rich range of analog and digital peripherals, as well as robust over-the-air (OTA) updates and a memory pack to support future upgrade needs.
In order to reduce any security breaches or data leakage, Silicon Labs has also launched the Secure Vault security technology, which has passed the PSA Level 3 certification, the highest level of industry security certification for SoCs. In addition to being pleased with the excellent Bluetooth low energy wireless performance, Tigo also applauds the unparalleled forward-looking technical support provided by the Silicon Labs team, as well as the ease of use of the extensively tested software tools.
With access to the Simplicity Studio IoT development environment, Tigo teams benefit from device-specific SDK resources, configuration tools, and an integrated development environment (IDE) with industry-standard code editors, compilers, and debuggers.
Next-Generation Tigo Flex MLPE Portfolio With successful partnerships, fast lead times and proven results, Tigo will embed Silicon Labs’ wireless SoCs throughout the TS4 Flex MLPE portfolio.