Inverters

The Swiss multinational has opened a production facility for energy storage systems for the mobility market and placed a 900 kW rooftop array on one of its Italian factories.

Enphase’s Q3 results show a company that has turned its fortunes around, with revenues more than doubling and high profitability, but questions remain around growth potential.

The South African utility has issued a 20-strong tender for 50 kW solar inverters and mounting structures, to be used in four power plants. Although it is unclear whether the tender marks the energy company’s first step into solar energy, the procurement follows the recent publication of South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan. Eskom is reportedly developing a renewables-linked large scale storage project which may explain the need for inverters.

The Taiwanese manufacturer said the 77 kVA, three-phase device is ideal for solar parks and commercial rooftops. The inverter, which has six maximum power point trackers, is said to have an efficiency of 98.8%.

In the run up to our Greenwashing vs. verifiable sustainability webinar, the CEO of pv magazine’s UP initiative partner SMA Solar Technology, Jürgen Reinert, talks about what the inverter manufacturer is doing to prove its sustainability credentials.

The sizeable rooftop array will feature latest-generation inverters. The project planners claim using 1500 V technology on a commercial rooftop allowed them to drive down costs 10-15%.

The Spanish manufacturer said the new three-phase device may reach a power output of 160 kWac in a single 75kg unit. The inverter features 1500 Vdc technology and is said to be able to reach a power output of 161 kW (AC) in a single 75kg unit.

Inverter manufacturer Solaredge has filed three additional patent infringement lawsuits against its competitor, Huawei, in China. This comes after three similar legal actions against Huawei that had been undertaken by Solaredge in Germany last summer. While Huawei has decided not to comment on the matter, the Chinese manufacturer revealed that it had filed three patent litigation claims against Solaredge at a Chinese court this May.

For its new offer, the Israeli inverter maker is using modules provided by a Tier 1 manufacturer. The products have a 12-year warranty and 25-year performance guarantee.

Credibility comes not just from offering products that generate clean electricity, but also from the way in which those products are manufactured, says SMA Solar Technology CEO Jürgen Reinert. Here, transparency and sustainability are key. That’s why one of the world’s largest PV inverter producers has partnered with pv magazine’s UP sustainability initiative. In the following Q&A, Reinert lays out what SMA is doing to step UP its green game.