Tigo Energy is an American private corporation, headquartered in

Campbell, California Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-ai ...

, United States. It provides products, technologies, software, and services to installers, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers within the

photovoltaic industry 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 u ...

. It specializes in module-level

power optimizer A power optimizer is a DC to DC converter technology developed to maximize the energy harvest from solar photovoltaic or wind turbine systems. They do this by individually tuning the performance of the panel or wind turbine through maximum power po ...

s and

smart module A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

. The company was founded in 2007 by a team of experienced technologists. The Tigo team developed the first-generation Smart Module Optimizer technology for the solar industry. Tigo has operations in the United States, across Europe, Latin America, Japan, China, Australia and the Middle East. Tigo Energy is not affiliated with

Millicom International Cellular Millicom International Cellular SA is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operating in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. Its main shareholder is Xavier Niel, a French billionaire who owns 40% of ...

, also known as Tigo.

History

Tigo Energy was founded by Sam Arditi and Ron Hadar in 2007. As of May 2017, the company employs more than 70 people in more than 10 offices worldwide. In December 2011, the company announced its fourth round of funding, an $18 million investment led by Bessemer Ventures. In June 2012, Tigo Energy announced an award from the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

as part of its SunShot incubator projects worth $3.5 million. The projects are designed to reduce the ongoing costs and prevent safety hazards from

electric arcs An electric arc (or arc discharge) is an electrical breakdown of a gas that produces a prolonged electrical discharge. The electric current, current through a normally Electrical conductance, nonconductive medium such as air produces a plasma ( ...

in photovoltaic arrays. In 2012, Tigo Energy announced the market launch of its newest generation of technology designed to be built directly into

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

during manufacturing. These

s included all the benefits of traditional

s, but without requiring installers to add extra boxes to solar modules. Tigo Energy's launch partners included

Trina Solar Trina Solar Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese photovoltaics company founded in 1997. History In 2018, Trina Solar launched Energy IoT brand, established the Trina Energy IoT Industrial Development Alliance together with leading companies and research ...

, Hanwha SolarOne,

DelSolar DelSolar (), commonly abbreviated 旺能))3599 TW) is solar company from Delta group (台達電子/台達集團), engaging in the research, design, manufacture and distribution of solar cells, solar modules, as well as the development of Photov ...

, Astronergy, Upsolar, and Luxor Solar. In September 2012, IMS Research identified Tigo Energy as one of three suppliers accounting for 90% of the

micro-inverter A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial ...

and power optimizer market. In October 2020, Tigo Energy launched the Tigo Enhanced initiative with partner inverters. Tigo incentivizes its program partners to promote Tigo Enhanced inverters by allocating marketing funds for every inverter sold under the program. In addition, the Tigo Enhanced logo, displayed on Tigo module-level power electronics (MLPE) and inverter partner products, creates a visual link of compatibility between devices. Sungrow, Growatt, Chint Power Systems North America, Yaskawa Solectria Solar, and Canadian Solar participate in the program. January 2021, Tigo Energy raised $20 million in funding led by Energy Growth Momentum. In August 2021, Tigo Energy announced the release of its Tigo TS4-A-S rapid shutdown with module-level monitoring for solar modules rated up to 700 watts. In September 2021, Tigo announced a residential inverter and battery storage solution under the Tigo EI (Energy Intelligence) brand.

Science and technology

Tigo Energy uses

impedance matching In electrical engineering, impedance matching is the practice of designing or adjusting the input impedance or output impedance of an electrical device for a desired value. Often, the desired value is selected to maximize power transfer or ...

to provide power control, data monitoring and safety mechanisms for every module in a solar array to increase performance and safety over traditional system-level technologies. The company also hosts customer data and provides detailed analytics with a

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

business model. The company was the first power optimizer to successfully certify embedding its electronics directly into the junction box of a solar module, reducing the component and labor costs of optimized photovoltaic arrays and eliminating the need for additional hardware.

Products

Tigo TS4 Flex MLPE provide different functions for solar modules including optimization, monitoring, and rapid shutdown. Tigo EI Residential Solution includes an inverter, battery, and automatic transfer switch (ATS). Energy Intelligence Software is the Tigo commissioning and monitoring platform.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.tigoenergy.com/ Photovoltaics American companies established in 2007 Software companies established in 2007 2007 establishments in California Privately held companies based in California Los Gatos, California Companies based in Santa Clara County, California