The advent of parallel wiring architectures for solar arrays promises to create new levels of freedom and flexibility for designers.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States -- For decades, designers of solar power systems have faced a knotty set of interlocking challenges. Solar panels produce DC at relatively low voltages, but inverters require a relatively high input voltage to be able to convert the power to AC and send it to the grid. Solar panels can be wired in series to sum their voltages, but their combined output fluctuates with even small mismatches among panels on a string.