SolarMagic is a subsidiary brand of
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...
, selling electronics for
photovoltaic
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
(PV) systems. It was established in 2008 as a subsidiary brand of
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
. The brand name was carried through when TI purchased National Semiconductor in 2011.
Products
The original SolarMagic device was a proprietary brand of
power optimizer, a device which isolates the output from each PV-module from the rest of the system, preventing loss of performance by a single module from affecting the rest of the array. Because of the electronic characteristics of solar arrays, real-world conditions such as partial/temporary shading and irregular panel performance can lead to disproportionate and excessive losses of power output from the system. In one study, shading over a day of between 8% and 16% of the PV system surface area led to relative array power losses of between 35% and 40%.
[Wilson, R. "National Semiconductor protects solar panels from shadows", ElectronicsWeekly.com, 2009-03-05: Retrieved on 2009-03-10: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2009/03/05/45608/national-semiconductor-protects-solar-panels-from-shadows.htm, ElectronicsWeekly.com, 2009-03-05.] Despite
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
advertisement claims that their power optimizer could recoup up to 57% of the power lost as a result of these phenomena, real-world results typically ranged between 1% and 6% of overall system output improvement.
References
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External links
SolarMagic IC Productsat Texas Instruments
Electrical power control