SolarBridge Technologies’ plans to increase the production capacity to over 70MW for its Pantheon microinverter have reached a promising new level with the beginning of the microinverter’s volume production at Celestica’s facility in Dongguan, China. SolarBridge further reveled that it has opened an office in Shenzen, China to support manufacturing and operations with a staff that specializes in manufacturing, test engineering and logistics.
A massive 150MW PV project to be built in Arizona by Zachry Industrial will use Advanced Energy Industries (AE) ‘Solaron’ PV inverters and its ‘SafeGuard’ service program. The project would be one of the largest of its kind so far built in the US and is slated to begin construction in mid-2011 with completion in 2013. AE is also to be the inverter supplier at a 35MW project in California with Cupertino Electric.
A new production line for SolarEdge Technologies photovoltaic inverters opened earlier this month at the Flextronics facility in Newmarket, Ontario. Systems manufactured at the plant will meet the domestic content requirements of the Canadian province's feed-in tariff programs and will also be exported to other customers in North America.
Much weaker than expected demand in Europe impacted PV inverter manufacturer, Satcon Technology’s first quarter financial results. Although Satcon posted record revenue of US$62 million for a first quarter accounting period, the revenue figure was below initial projections of US$65 million to US$70 million. Some shipments were postponed to later in the year by some of its customers due to an inventory build, executives noted in a conference call to discuss financial results. Net loss for the first quarter was US$2.1 million.
A new report from IMS Research highlights that for the first time, all of the top 10PV inverter suppliers were European based, which was due to PV installations more than doubling in 2010, with the biggest growth in key European markets such as Germany and Italy. However, the top five gainers in market share in 2010 came from a mix of geographical locations, headed by Power-One, Siemens, Advanced Energy, Sungrow and Danfoss. The global PV inverter market grew 140% in 2010, according to the market research firm.
Solectria Renewables has been selected by Tecta Solar to supply four Massachusetts rooftop installations with SGI series inverters. As part of the 5.3MW deal, Solectria will provide one SGI 300 (300kW) and 10 SGI 500 (500kW) inverters.
Satcon has been selected by Solon to supply 12 of its 1.25MW Prism Platforms for Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) 15MW ground mount installation near Fresno, CA. Each Prism Platform will be configured to include Satcon Equinox inverters, which deliver 98.5% efficiency combined with the industry’s widest thermal operating range.
SolarBridge Technologies has revealed that its Pantheon microinverter has passed all necessary tests and has been granted the safety standard for PV inverters: UL 1741 certification by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). The company claims that this is the first integrated microinverter that comes with a 25-year warranty to receive such certification.
Power-One has begun shipping central inverters from its Chinese manufacturing and design facility in Shenzhen. By the end of 2011, the site will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 1GW.
Enphase Energy’s two new European offices, located in France and Italy, have been established in order for the company to better accommodate growing demands of its microinverter system. Both France and Italy have been cited as areas with a burgeoning solar market that stand on the brink of better implementing microinverter technology.
