Solar Sentry has developed, patented and field-tested diagnostic and monitoring technology for large solar electric arrays to maximize financial return and minimize financial risk for their owners.

Most large photovoltaic power sites underperform 5-10% due to undiagnosed, yet easily repaired, problems in their solar panel arrays. For less than 10¢/W installed cost, Solar Sentry’s embedded electronics and cloud-based solar diagnostic and monitoring services can reduce both site payback times and financial risk for both rooftop and ground-mount commercial-scale solar sites.

In addition, growing concerns for fire and personnel safety in rooftop solar electric systems are best addressed by embedding electronics in solar panels.

As a result, the market for embedded solar panel electronics on large commercial rooftops will grow as cost-effective technology becomes available and new standards emerge. Solar Sentry’s field-proven, patented technology is expected to meet or exceed safety and performance goals at a 25-50% lower cost than competitors while providing simplicity, elegance and value.

Products and Services
Solar Sentry’s diagnostic solution combines embedded eSmart^TM electronics in string combiners with some percentage of Panel Sentries^TM and/or Panel Managers^TM embedded in solar panels. This internet-ready Plug-N-Play cloud-based approach pays for itself quickly by lowering O&M costs and improving performance.

Solar Sentry’s turnkey “Software as a Service” (SaaS) based diagnostic services:

1.  Collect fault and performance data securely via the internet every few minutes;

2.  Analyze the data to pinpoint problems; and

3.  Notify the appropriate maintenance personnel by email and/or text messages..

These services provide real-time problem identification and notification, replacing scheduled maintenance with targeted action to improve performance and reduce cost. Monthly performance analysis is used to improve productivity and enable the customer to collect on multi-year panel warranties.

Courtesy of DOE/NREL, Credit - SMUD

A typical commercial-scale solar photovoltaic site has 1,000 or more solar panels (modules). With today’s monitoring solutions, significant problems in the solar array go undetected. If and when they are suspected, the absence of actionable diagnostic information forces the owner to either ignore the problem or deploy skilled technicians to the site to manually search for the problem. Both the loss of energy and the repair process are costly, raising the price per kWh and lowering site profitability. 

Awarded NYSERDA contract for clean energy business growth and development