Euro Projects has chosen Emerson as inverter supplier for its two recently-completed installations in Sardinia, Italy. The combined capacity of the two systems, located adjacent to one another in the municipality of Villaperuccio, is 10MW and Emerson will equip both sites with its utility-scale power inverters and management systems.
Enphase hasn’t cornered all of the new wave of solar modules integrated with a microinverter for the US market. PV module manufacturer, SunPower has launched its E18 & E19 AC Solar Panel series using SolarBridge’s ‘Pantheon’ microinverter. The all-black, E18/225 watt AC solar panel and the maximum-efficiency E19/240 watt AC solar panel will be available in the U.S. in early 2012. The AC panels feature SunPower's 22.4% efficient ‘Maxeon’ cell technology.
Other than module mountings nuts and bolts, microinverters and power inverters are one of the smallest components that could be used in a PV system installation. However, the market for these microelectronics-dependent little marvels experienced 500% growth in 2010, according to a recent IMS Research report and they continue to punch above their weight.
Only a few weeks before releasing third-quarter 2011 financial results on October 27, 2011, inverter supplier, Power-One has reduced guidance for the quarter. Power-One expects revenue to be in the range of US$240-US$245 million, down from previous guidance of US$265 million-US$280 million. The company cited weaker than expected demand for lower revenue expectation. Sales in the second-quarter were US$180 million.
Fronius International and Obvius Holdings have formed a strategic partnership for the development of a monitoring solution that provides “plug-and-play integration.” Fronius’ IG Plus and CL inverters are now supported by Obvius’ AcquiSuite, AcquiSuite EMB and AcquiLite EMB.
Enecsys advised that it has partnered with Ember for the company’s wireless ZigBee communications, which will be incorporated into Enecsys microinverters so that households and business can better monitor and improve their systems’ performance. The ZigBee system-on-chip (SoC) and ZigBee PRO software have been added to Enecsys’ SMI microinverter series and should allow for real-time and historical data to be populated for its users.
In 2010, pvXchange traded nearly 185MW of solar modules and 85MW of inverters working with over 300 suppliers and 2,500 active buyers for the European market. The company is now looking to make headway in the North American market with the opening of its new US headquarters in San Francisco, which is supplemented with pvXchange’s presence in New Jersey and Ontario, Canada as well.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, along with Bureau Veritas, have evaluated and certified that Sputnik Engineering’s SolarMax 330TS-SV solar inverter has met the requirements for a compliance certificate from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). The certificate requires that all newly commissioned grid-coupled inverters with a direct medium-voltage connection in Germany adhere to the “Generator plants on the medium-voltage network” directive by BDEW.
US-based inverter manufacturer Solectria Renewables has delivered four 266kW SGI 266 smartgrid inverters to BlueChip Energy for what will be the largest PV rooftop installation in Florida. The inverters will power the first 1.5MW stage of the 10MW Rinehart Solar Farm project located in Lake Mary, Florida.
Solar inverter manufacturer KACO new energy has made inroads into the US market with the signing of a US manufacturing partnership with manufacturing solutions company Sanmina-SCI. The partnership will see Sanmina provide end-to-end manufacturing services for its blueplanet 02xi inverter series with the intention of reducing manufacturing costs and overall delivery times.
