Solar Austin Happy Hour: Technology For A Smarter Grid

From Solar Austin –

As solar and other renewable energy technologies spread further throughout society, effectively connecting these distributed means of generation to current transmission infrastructure and expanding and modernizing the grid become ever more pressing issues. Solar Austin is excited to present our July Happy Hour speaker, the co-cofounder of Enphase, Raghu Belur, who will tell us more about the exciting advancements in smart inverter, smart grid, and distributed energy resources technology, particularly as related to the residential market. Enphase has also generously provided for food and drinks at month’s happy hour.

Raghu is currently the company’s Vice President of Products and Strategic Initiatives and Enphase is a worldwide leader in microinverters, AC home battery storage, smart solar monitoring technologies, and now integrated AC Modules from top PV manufacturers. Raghu has more than 20 years of experience in the clean energy and high technology industries. Prior to Enphase, he developed high-speed optical communication technology for Cerent, which was later acquired by Cisco Systems for $7 billion. Before Cerent, Raghu was an engineer at the Indian Institute of Science, where he played a key role in the development of an alternative energy gasification system. He co-founded Enphase Energy with Martin Fornage in 2006. Raghu has a MSEE from Texas A&M University and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

All electric generating sources must be closely monitored in order to ensure reliability of the electric grid and efficient delivery of electricity. Solar energy systems require an additional layer of complexity because they only produce direct current electricity and because solar is an intermittent energy source. These systems are connected to inverters, which convert the electricity produced to an alternating current, so that it can be fed into a specific building’s electric system or onto the grid. “Smart” inverters and other new technologies can allow grid operators to control and automate specific electrical systems and extremely fine resolution of the grid to make the system more resilient.

Smarter inverters and other new transmission infrastructure can help renewable resources to further penetrate into the market and promulgate throughout the grid—an essential foundation for expanding renewable energy generation to fight air pollution and climate change, mushroom the number of local clean energy jobs, and provide solar to even more people.

State Parking Garages can be found next to, behind and across from Scholz Garten. San Jacinto Blvd., 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and Trinity have parking garage entrances.