Solar modules started out as fairly simple moisture-proof sandwiches of glass, silicon cells, glue and backsheets -- with a junction box that contains a few diodes to bypass defective or shaded cells. No fancy electronics in the early days. Then power electronics circuitry crept into early inverters -- to the point now where all inverters contain hundreds of electronics chips to provide various optimization, communications and safety functions. Now that many installations use microinverters or optimizers, every single solar panel has its own collection of electronics chips.

Power electronics for solar modules are generally designed with 50-200 general purpose integrated circuits and related components. Like almost all other electronic products, microinverters and optimizers were all initially designed with discrete components -- but then, as sales volumes increase manufacturers started to include more specialized components. Think about the first PCs and all the components that were soldered onto internal circuit boards. Now most of the functionality of PCs (and cellphones and TVs and other mass produced electronics) are provided by a few customized chips made in very high volumes. The same miniaturization and cost reduction trend, from hundreds of discrete general purpose components to dozens of specialized power electronics chips, will occur with power electronics for solar applications.

As Intel, AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia and others have shown, providing specialized chipsets to electronics manufacturers is a good way to reduce costs and improve performance. It's a geeky business, but one that has made our laptops and cellphones so ubiquitous. Solantro Semiconductor has staked its future on providing chipsets for solar power systems, as well as related energy storage and communications functions. Because they are optimized for miniaturized power electronics applications, Solantro's solar chipsets will be cheaper, more efficient and more reliable than ordinary power electronics composed of hundreds of chips. My guest this week is Antoine Paquin, CEO of Solantro Semiconductor. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Antoine explains how specialized chipsets for solar power applications will help make solar systems cheaper, smaller and more efficient.