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Little-known fact about solar power: your entire array is only as efficient as your least-efficient solar cell.

It's true. Let's say you've got a nice big solar array, but at a certain time of the day, one of the cells is shaded by the chimney on your house, or your neighbor's tree. That one cell gets less sunlight, so it can't convert as much light to energy; but at the same time, it's also dragging the efficiency of your entire array down to its level, since most arrays are set up to only be as efficient as their least-efficient component.

According to National Semiconductor, this real-world mismatch can reduce the power output of a solar array by as much as half. 

Don't worry, National Semiconductor has a solution: SolarMagic, a power optimizer that "monitors and maximizes the energy harvest of each individual PV panel through advanced algorithms combined with leading-edge mixed-signal technology, thereby recouping up to 57% of the lost energy due to mismatches."

By having SolarMagic installed on your array, you can maximize your solar panel efficiency and actually increase the kilowatt hours of energy produced. That means you'll start saving money on your utility bills immediately?and your system will pay for itself in a shorter time period.

You can't just click a button to order SolarMagic yourself -- you need to get a local installer to do that for you, or contact the company for one-on-one service -- but if you're looking to go green with solar power, you might want to explore this before you find out that you're not getting the energy you thought you would.