Solar Industry Gets Aid to Fight Shade (SolarMagic™ can recoup as much as 40% of the lost power!)

Solar Industry Gets Aid to Fight Shade

By DON CLARK
June 30, 2008; Page B6

Shade is a perennial problem for the solar-power industry, but a Silicon Valley chip maker thinks it can help.

National Semiconductor Corp. on Monday plans to announce technology that is designed to sharply reduce the impact of partial shading on solar panels, which generate electricity from sunlight.

The technology, dubbed SolarMagic, is being tested by REgrid Power Inc., a company in Campbell, Calif., that installs solar panels. Tom McCalmont, REgrid's chief executive officer, estimates SolarMagic can recoup as much as 40% of the power that otherwise would be lost to partial shading. "We've seen a really dramatic difference," he said.

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National -- a Santa Clara, Calif., company that makes chips that manage power in cellphones and other products -- is developing small modules that attach to each solar panel and compensate for variations in voltage caused when shade or dirt block light from hitting parts of panels. The company isn't disclosing many details about how the technology works.

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