DC Microgrid Systems with Sol Haroon

Generation to Use: Energy Beyond Grid Limitations

#SolarMOOC Live Lect re !h rsday" Decem#er $%th at &'m CD!
This Thursday December 20th, SolPowerPeople welcomes Sol Haroon, Lead Systems Engineer at Suniva, nc!, to present a "Solar#$$% lecture on D% #icrogrid Design! Perhaps some day soon, we will &ind ourselves in a D% #icrogrid neighborhood, where all things are D% powered, and adaptors and inverters are a thing o& the past! This could become a more common reality in the &uture' as the solar industry grows, so does the need to manage the clean power that(s produced &rom that beauti&ul core o& nuclear &usion that we call the sun! This includes not )ust collection o& energy, but distribution as well' a growing concern moving &orward as solar becomes more prevalent, population grows, and the grid seems ever smaller each day! magine a world embracing solar' one where there is no more o& that dirty, ine&&icent process o& coal burning which results in *&ly ash, bottom ash, and &lue'gas desul&uri+ation sludge, that contain mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals* ,-i.ipedia, coal(s environmental e&&ects/! magine a world with no more worries about the loss o& energy due to a conversion &rom 0% to D%, and no more worry about &iguring out how to e1pand the 0% utility grid to accomodate this clean and &ree energy &rom the sun!

Some are saying, perhaps Edison was right2 despite his penchant &or propaganda as in the -ar o& %urrents, we have to give him 3uite a lot o& credit! t turns out many o& us are becoming D%'worshippers, a&ter all! 0s the solar industry evolves each new theory, application, and technological advancement brings us one step closer to a shared goal o& sustainability! -e must continue to loo. at this goal and as. ourselves, what can we do now to be prepared &or the &uture o& this rapidly growing industry and the disturbing reality o& global warming4

0s stated by Sol Haroon, *Direct %urrent ,D%/ is ma.ing a comebac.! 0ppliances today that do not involve compressors or motors are o&ten semiconductor-based which natively run DC ! This includes modern'day solid state lighting ,LED/ that are increasingly lighting up more buildings! 0 microgrid is an independent system that supplies power &or a speci&ic entity such as a residence, building, or commercial in&rastructure! Speci&ically, a D% microgrid has the ability to store power5 the .ey to a microgrid is that it represents a decentralized form of power that naturally can be fed by renewable energy sources such as Photovoltaics! n short, enable distributed power sources to &eed power loads that are a natural fit! 0ccording to the Electric Power 6esearch 7roup, electronic data centers powered by D% microgrids are 208 more e&&icient than the best 0% systems, and up to 30 more efficient than most !C systems! 0 well designed D% microgrid system can coe1ist with a standard 0% system powering the devices that re3uire the appropriate current type where it ma.es sense economically and &or e&&iciency!9 This presentation will review in detail the wor.ings o& a D% microgrid system and will present some e1amples that the author himsel& has wor.ed on! "ol #aroon ,sol:suniva!com/ has 20 years o& e1perience in electronics engineering design, system architecture and leading teams! %urrently, he is engaged as a lead systems engineer at "univa addressing client needs around the world both grid-tie and off-grid P$ applications ! Prior to that, he was a systems team lead at 0D;0 $ptical responsible &or architecting microchips &or high speed data networ.ing! Sol has over <0 years o& e1perience in sustainable energy including direct personal e1perience with net'+ero housing design ,passive techni3ues, solar thermal, and solar photovoltaics/ and electric vehicle design! He has also currently partnered with $a.ridge =ational Labs and South&ace Energy nstitute &or a special nation'wide program to retro&it houses &or energy e&&iciency with the aim o& >08 energy reduction! He has been published in trade )ournals such as P; #aga+ine, &eatured on =6EL(s on'line webinars, and interviewed on the radio in 0tlanta on sustainable living! Thursday night, "ol #aroon% Lead "ystems Engineer at "univa% will ta.e the "Solar#$$% stage to present a lecture on one method o& problem solving that is becoming more and more popular? DC &icrogrids! 0s a "Solar#$$% participant, you will receive an invitation to this online live lecture!