Projects

Application: Lighting
Location: Nauru, Micronesia
Year: 2008
Product: Morningstar ProStar 15

Nauru is a tiny island country in Micronesia, northeast of Australia. Morningstar’s ProStar solar controller has reliably operated in the island environment since the early 2000s to power a 1,300 LED lighting system.

Application: Other/Mining
Location: Australia
Product: TriStar MPPT 60

Nearly 70 trailers at a Western Australia mining site used TriStar MPPT 60 solar controllers. The trailers provide WiFi coverage throughout the mine to support operations. SNMP traps are configured into each unit.

Application: Residential, Rural Development
Location: Brazil
Year: 2003
Product: SureSine inverters
System size: 160W of solar for each installation
Partners include: Light for All, Kyocera Solar

Nearly 10 million people in Brazil’s rural areas live without access to electricity and approximately 90% live below the poverty line without basic amenities such as electronic devices, refrigeration and lighting. Brazil’s federal government launched the “Light for All” program in 2003 to deliver electricity to these families. The program covered equipment and installation costs to provide citizens with necessary materials and training to operate and maintain renewable energy installations in their communities.

Morningstar shipped 20,000 SureSine inverters for the program to convert the solar-generated electricity into usable AC power. The SureSine’s sealed design requires no cooling fans, eliminating the risk of failure that could shorten internal component life. The inverter is also rugged and encapsulated to withstand harsh conditions. It’s also “fault-tolerant” with built-in circuitry protection to resist damage from installer or user error.

By May 2016, 15.6 million Brazilians benefited from the program, which also created 485,000 jobs. With this success, the government extended the program to 2018 to bring another million citizens out of the dark.

Read more about the project here. 

Application: Caravan and Boating
Location: New Zealand
Year: 2012
System size: 420W of solar and 12-V lead-acid battery

Reasons for selecting the Morningstar controllers were a good fit for this caravan application in rural New Zealand because they can extend battery life, feature a meter interface and come with good technical support.

In the villlage of Wawan-Rafi, this family uses solar electricity that provides energy for several compact fluorescent lights in the house.  Photo Courtesy of Jeff Lahl

Application: Telecom
Location: Brazil
Year: 2000
Product: ProStar 15 and ProStar 30
System size: 320W or 180W of solar with batteries (2,500+ sites)
Partners include: Kyocera Solar, Embratel

Morningstar deployed nearly 2,000 ProStar 15 and ProStar 30 systems to small villages through Brazilian’s Telecom Universalization Program. Phone company Embratel installed more than 2,500 solar-powered systems for public telephones. Each site includes VSAT equipment from Hughes Network Systems or Gilat Satellite Networks. The Hughes stations include four 80-W Kyocera Solar modules and four 150-Ah batteries. The Gilat stations have three 60-W Kyocera Solar modules and two batteries.

-Photo courtesy of Kyocera Solar Do Brasil LTDA

Application: Rural Electrification
Location: Burkina Faso, West Africa
Product: TriStar MPPT

Two TriStar MPPT solar controllers helped power a 230-V system at a Burkina Faso medical center.

Application: Security and Instrumentation
Location: Mexico
Year: 2012 (bus), 2014 (police)
Product: SunSaver controller and SureSine inverter
System size: Two 65-W solar panels and a 105-Ah,12-V battery (bus), four 65-W solar panels with four 136Ah,12-V batteries (police)
Partners include: Energía Fotovoltaica Cuantum

Morningstar SunSaver controllers and SureSine inverters power a small off-grid police building and University bus station in Mexico. Solar powers radio and telecom equipment at the police station, as well as lights to illuminate the bus station.

-Photos courtesy of Energía Fotovoltaica Cuantum

Application: Telecom
Location: Egypt
Product: TriStar MPPT 60
System size: 4,950W of solar and 1,200 Ah of of battery backup
Partners include: Independent Energy

Morningstar products thrive in extreme desert environments. The TriStar’s superior thermal management capabilities and fanless design made it the first choice for this project in Egypt. Four TriStar MPPT 60 controllers, an RD-1 Relay Driver, a HUB-1 MeterHub and a TS-RM-2 TriStar Remote Digital Meter drive this solar installation which powers remote telecommunications. Three TriStar MPPT 60 help charge while one regulates loads. The RD-1 and HUB-1 signal alarms for aspects such as low voltage. The system has ground-fault monitoring and 1,200 Ah of battery backup.

-Photos courtesy of Independent Energy