This year saw Ghana not only install the largest solar project in East and West Africa, but also a major 30MW module manufacturing facility near its capital, Accra, in what is a major milestone for the upstream solar sector across Africa. PV Tech visited the plant to understand some of developer 3SIL's thinking behind location and business.
SolarEdge's Lior Handelsman explains some of the thinking and development processes behind HD Wave, which the publicly-listed Israeli company believes represents a significant leap forward for inverter technology. The product was launched at the beginning of the year, when Handelsman said in another interview for PV Tech that inverters can now "evolve at the speed of electronics, not mechanics".
The ease of due diligence on inverters and increased technical awareness among the investor community has helped ease bankability issues surrounding Chinese inverters in recent years.
Sungrow Power Supply Co is showcasing its move into the emerging 1500 volt market with its SG3000HV-MV turnkey container solution. The system enables more modules to be connected, dramatically reducing system costs and power generating losses.
SolarEdge and SMA’s launches of inverters compatible with Tesla’s Powerwall and LG Chem’s new range mark a “growing trend” towards higher voltage batteries for residential PV systems, an IHS analyst has said.
Global shipments of PV inverters will reach 90GW by 2020, valuing at more than US$7.1 billion, according to GTM Research’s latest report, 'The Global PV Inverter and MLPE Landscape 2016'. This represents an average annual growth rate of 11% between 2016 and the end of the decade.
A new study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights the continued need to focus on balance of system (BOS) cost reductions for solar PV power plants to continue to expand as a key global renewable energy source.
meteocontrol, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE) is launching several new features and refinements made to its SCADA Center and VCOM monitoring solutions for PV power plants at Intersolar Europe 2016, as well as its ‘Pit Stop’ service for existing systems.
Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC) has started shipments of the newest inverters in the ‘Solar Ware’ ‘Samurai’ Series 1500VDC, 2700kW / 2700kVA central inverters. The Samurai’s new thermal solution offers a cooling system designed for the desert environment, and offers an operating range of 50 ~ 950V.
