Inverters

Growatt has been on an upward trajectory, recording an over 60% revenue increase in 2021, despite the many challenges posed in the solar industry. Lisa Zhang, global marketing director tells pv magazine how the Chinese PV inverter manufacturer overcame semiconductor chip shortages and rising costs amidst a global pandemic in addition to discussing key markets and new inverter products.

The Chinese PV inverter maker has said that all its products are tested and certified in compliance with EU regulations by global leading testing and certification companies. As for the 8000TL3-S inverter series, which has now been banned from the Swedish market, the company said the device has not been in production since 2020.

The Swedish Electrical Safety Agency has ruled that some SolarEdge optimizers and one string inverter from Growatt do not meet its electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements – halting their sale in the country. SolarEdge expressed surprise at the banning and claims that the complaints filed with the Electrical Safety Agency came from a handful of amateur radio operators.

In a draft of the Build Back Better infrastructure plan released by the Senate Finance Committee, domestic manufacturing of solar PV and balance-of-system components would qualify for incentives.

The Italian inverter maker and the Algerian electronics manufacturer are joining forces to produce solar inverters in Algeria. The location of the planned manufacturing facility was not disclosed.

A U.S.-Israeli consortium is developing synchroinverters – inverters that mimic a synchronous generator and are able to actively respond to the grid’s frequency changes while stabilizing the voltage. The new devices are expected to do this simultaneously and provide grid stability services in less than 16.67 milliseconds.

The Hangzhou-based microinverter maker is now listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE).

The three-phase inverter series features an efficiency ranging from 98.6% to 99.0%. The devices are equipped with up to 12 MPPT inputs and are able to provide up to 32 A MPPT current.

Director Deepak Pandey is confident the company’s hybrid devices – which are lead-acid and lithium battery compatibility – will replace the existing market.

A French research group has compared the performance ratio of 100 PV systems relying on micro-inverters with that of 100 installations relying on string/central inverters. It found the performance ratio is around 79% for both system typologies and that arrays with micro-inverters are more sensitive to environmental factors.