Recent reports that indicated PV inverters are responsible for 59% of total PV project failure costs - a startling statistic – underscore the relevancy of a new in-depth assessment of the PV inverter market and technologies by GTM Research. However, the good news is that GTM’s analysis suggests that a new wave of next-generation inverter technologies (both for large-scale and residential markets) are expected to offer significant improvements and, importantly, provide for greater adoption of utility-scale PV as well as better returns for the residential customer as feed-in tariffs decline.
Microinverter firm, SPARQ, headquartered in Kingston, Ontario is to have its new microinverters and communications hubs for PV systems manufactured by Sanmina-SCI at its Ottawa facility, which is certified for Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, and at Sanmina-SCI's worldwide regional facilities for global distribution.
SolarBridge Technologies has appointed Bill Mulligan as its newest board member and Bill Paape as its CFO. Over fifty years of professional experience lies between the two men and the company looks forward to SolarBridge growing under their leadership.
The board of Satcon Technology has named Aaron Gomolak to be its executive VP, CFO, and treasurer, replacing replacing Donald Peck. Gomolak joined the PV inverter and power conversion company in May 2008, most recently serving as the senior VP of global operations.
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.
