What are the Fundamental Differences Between Tigo and SolarEdge Optimizers?

The fundamental differences in Optimization are:

1. Solar Edge does both buck and boost conversion, so they can have the output voltage going up and down, where we are doing buck alone so we can only take output voltage down.

2. Tigo work with every MPPT inverter and battery charger for the past 6 years. SE are only now starting to adopt this capability.

The SolarEdge optimizer is more complex than the Tigo one, and as result is less efficient, has lower MTBF (mean time between failure) and more expensive.

3. For the retrofit market: Tigo is much more suitable, as the optimizers work with every inverter. Solar Edge will have to replace an inverter (major additional cost) or compensate efficiency as they work with a standard inverter that doesn't compensate their optimizers’ losses.