Commercial Solar Inverters Come “Monitoring-Ready” to Simplify Deployment, Increase Reliability and Reduce Costs

San Jose, Calif. and Bend, Ore. – July 16, 2008 – Fat Spaniel Technologies, Inc., the market leader in monitoring and reporting services for distributed energy systems, has partnered with the largest US-based manufacturer of grid-tied solar power inverter technology, PV Powered, Inc., to offer a factory integrated and tested monitoring solution for solar electric systems. Using the new Fat Spaniel Insight Platform and pre-installed monitoring hardware in the inverter, the combined offering makes remote monitoring much simpler to configure, install and commission. These capabilities benefit customers throughout the solar supply chain including integrators, PPA service providers, utilities and energy end-users.  

“Fat Spaniel has built a market-leading position based on our ability to deliver intelligent monitoring solutions to our renewable energy customers. Now, with Insight Platform and its open data interface, we are engaging the creativity and technical resources of our partners to  push the boundaries of innovation even further,” said Chris Beekhuis, president and CTO of Fat Spaniel Technologies. “Our work with PV Powered to tightly integrate the necessary monitoring hardware into its inverters – and to allow access to our data warehouse and our information services using a standardized, open interface – demonstrates how our offerings can complement each other to deliver more integrated, easily deployed and cost-effective solar energy monitoring.”

PV Powered’s commercial inverters, with the optional pre-installed monitoring hardware, can be combined with Fat Spaniel services to streamline the reliable collection of PV site data and the delivery of monitoring intelligence to those who need it.  Data collected from the inverter – such as production and status information – can be exported over the Internet to the Fat Spaniel data center, from which information about the solar electric system is then made available to customers in the form of Web views, reports and alerts. Benefits of this integrated approach to monitoring include:

• Improved Reliability and Uptime: Remote management capabilities, such as detailed near real-time fault identification and diagnosis, help system installers, integrators and operators enjoy improved inverter reliability along with higher uptime.
• Lower Cost of Ownership: Pre-installed monitoring hardware, combined with tight integration with Fat Spaniel’s monitoring services using the Insight Platform open data interface, cuts the costs of system deployment while also reducing the costs of operations and maintenance.  Access to inverter status and fault information via the Web means fewer expensive on-site service calls over the expected 20-plus year life of the inverter.
• Increased Return on Investment (ROI): By cutting upfront installation costs as well as on-going costs of operations and maintenance, and by maximizing energy harvest of the solar electric system with PV Powered inverters, owners of Fat Spaniel monitored solar electric systems can increase their ROI over the life of the project.

“PV Powered is committed to redefining how the solar industry thinks about reliability, installability and maintainability.  Working with Fat Spaniel to elegantly integrate its monitoring hardware into our inverters has resulted in a highly reliable solution that virtually eliminates the installation time and configuration challenges for installers in the field” said Gregg Patterson CEO of PV Powered.  “We believe that bringing plug-and-play simplicity to data monitoring will be a fundamental catalyst for industry growth.”

Availability
The monitoring solution is available this month from both Fat Spaniel and PV Powered, and covers PV Powered’s commercial inverter product family: PVP 30 kW, PVP 75kW and PVP 100kW.  In addition, an inverter-integrated monitoring solution for PV Powered’s residential inverters will be available in August.

About Fat Spaniel Technologies
Based in San Jose, Calif., Fat Spaniel Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of monitoring and reporting services for distributed, renewable energy systems – enabling efficient operations and maintenance, compelling web-based visualization, and accurate reporting. Fat Spaniel’s services are based on Insight Platform, the industry’s first open platform for multi-vendor system and portfolio monitoring. Users of Fat Spaniel’s services include system owners, system integrators, PPA service providers, utilities, inverter manufacturers, project financing firms, REC traders and regulatory agencies. The company specializes in renewable energy systems including solar electric, solar water heating and small wind. Fat Spaniel products are presently deployed in over 1,500 locations in 13 countries worldwide. Fat Spaniel is funded by Chrysalix Energy, Element Partners, Ignition Partners, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund and Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc. For more information, see http://www.fatspaniel.com.

About PV Powered
Founded in 2003 and based in Bend, Oregon, PV Powered is the largest US-based manufacturer of solar power inverter technology. Designed for highest reliability and manufactured in the U.S.A., PV Powered products are UL Listed, and have the highest efficiency ratings in the solar market today. With thousands of its products in use nationwide, PV Powered combines one of the most experienced design teams in solar power electronics with a commitment to superior service and support. For more information, see www.pvpowered.com.

Media contact:
Rosalind Jackson, Antenna Group for Fat Spaniel Technologies
[email protected], 415-977-1923