Schneider Electric has formed a technological and commercial partnership with SolarEdge Technologies to accelerate the residential solar market in North America by providing homeowners with seamless energy management for future smart homes.

The partnership marries French firm Schneider Electric’s expertise in energy distribution and automation with Israeli company SolarEdge’s footprint in residential solar and smart energy management that increases solar energy production and consumption.

In banding together, the two firms seek to serve new market needs in California initially, where solar is now required on all new home construction as part of California Energy Commission updates to Title 24 building energy efficiency standards.

“Residential energy consumption is expected to double by 2050, contributing to more extreme weather events and a greater strain on an aging grid that has resulted in more frequent power outages than ever before,” said Annette Clayton, North America CEO for Schneider Electric. “In combining our expertise with SolarEdge, we’re poised to meet customer demands, while moving the needle on our shared vision of a sustainable, all-electric new energy world.”

A debut product, the Square D Energy Center, is said to outpace any other currently available in the market with its features and ease of install and use by electrical contractors and homeowners alike. It is a modular, compact energy manager that gives homeowners personalised digital control over how their solar energy is produced, used and stored, ensuring that power flow is safe, cost-effective and resilient.

Powered by Schneider Electric’s Wiser technology along with SolarEdge’s Energy Hub Inverter with Prism Technology, Square D seamlessly enables the convergence, scalability and optimisation of residential distributed energy resources, including utility power, solar power, energy storage, future smart home devices and generators. Further, built in energy monitoring capabilities enhance the user experience bridging the gap between home automation and digital energy management.

Features include:

• All-in-one smart energy management, battery-ready with selectable or partial home-backup, generator support and control, built-in consumption meter, and EV charging from the sun.
• The Qwik-Connect system enables electrical contractors to install the SolarEdge Energy Hub Inverter to the Square D unit in less time, without tools, and occupying a smaller footprint.
• Square D has a dedicated compartment that allows for faster, cleaner and more effective installations of a backup interface module.
• Safety technologies help reduce risk from fires, electroshocks and surge events.
• QR code labelling simplifies set up by reducing the time to configure many devices once the home’s wifi network has been created.
• Using the Square D edition of the Sense app, homeowners can manage their energy usage in real time across all devices in their home, even those that are not smart or connected, from their phone.
• The MySolarEdge app lets homeowners monitor, manage and control battery storage, back-up operations and generator usage, and perform smart energy management.

“As the leading inverter company in the USA residential solar market, SolarEdge is dedicated to working with like-minded industry leaders who are committed to developing new solutions that make going solar more accessible,” said Peter Mathews, North America general manager for SolarEdge. “By partnering with Schneider Electric’s Square D Energy Center, we can provide a seamless energy ecosystem for both installers and system owners, while also accelerating the solar installation experience nationwide.”

The Square D Energy Center will be available for the North American market in spring 2021.

“As homes become more connected and electrified, consumers are looking to stay in control of their energy in a way that supports their sustainable lifestyle choices,” said Manish Pant, executive vice president at Schneider Electric. “The Square D Energy Center brings peace of mind and advanced functionality to homeowners to create an end-to-end energy management, residential ecosystem that suits the new energy landscape.”