Solar Plug — Universal Off-Grid Microconverter
Center for Distributed Energy, Georgia Tech · IDEAS 2025
A plug-and-play microconverter for off-grid PV: an isolated inline converter with onboard MPPT, aimed at Tier-1 through Tier-4 energy access at a cost that makes sense in the markets that need it.
The idea
Energy access at the low end fails on cost and installation complexity long before it fails on physics. Solar Plug puts the conversion and the maximum power point tracking inline in a single small unit, so a panel and a load can be connected without a designed system around them.
- Isolated inline conversion with onboard MPPT.
- Direct PV inversion, targeting decentralised and off-grid deployment.
- Cost and power density traded explicitly against Tier-1–4 access requirements.
- Simulation and hardware prototypes.
Citation
N. Prabhu, S. Manjrekar, R. Sriram, A. Marellapudi, J. Benzaquen and D. Divan, “Solar Plug — Universal Off-Grid Microconverter for Low-Cost Tier-1-4 Energy Access,” IEEE International Decentralized Energy Access Solutions (IDEAS) Conference, 2025.