Siemens Solar Industries (Camarillo, CA) announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Nextek Power Systems Inc. (Ronkonkoma, NY) enabling Siemens to market and sell Nextek's solar-assisted lighting systems in conjunction with its commercial and industrial building installations.
The new NexStep lighting systems will link Siemens Solar panels with NexTek's patented, energy-efficient lighting power controls, which improve power-conversion efficiency by more than 30 percent. The NexStep lighting system incorporates Nextek's integrated power module technology, which directly couples the dc power produced by the Siemens Solar panels to the building's lighting load. This direct coupling of the solar panel to the lighting load eliminates the losses typically associated with dc-to-ac inverter-based systems.
"Essentially, the NexStep system makes use of all the energy produced by the solar array and puts it directly onto the lighting load, maximizing the power-conversion efficiency by more than 30 percent when compared to inverter-based systems," stated Nextek Vice President Patrick McLafferty.
