String Inverters

The Solar Market Parity Italy 2019 event organized by Solarplaza in Milan last week gave an insight into the Italian large scale PV market by forecasting the trajectory of the segment and highlighting issues investors and developers may encounter.

After listing shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange last week, Chinese inverter maker Ginlong now plans to increase its production capacity in the 2019-20 period. The company also plans to develop marketing networks and R&D centers in multiple overseas markets.

The inverter maker took number one spot in the US from SMA this year, and acquired majority stakes and IP in uninterrupted power supply company Gamatronic and storage system provider Kokam. While other companies have consolidated, SolarEdge managed to report robust results.

New developments in inverter architecture suggest that string inverters have charged forwards again to take on the challenge and kick central inverters off the throne in the utility-scale market. Hardware design innovations allowing to cut down BoS capex and improve efficiency of the plants might push string inverters further to take more space in the utility-scale market place.

Spanish inverter maker Ingeteam has reported a massive order to supply Mexican projects, which it claims will increase its O&M services to cover 55% of the countries solar PV installations. Supply contracts are mostly related to central inverters, although string devices, as well as LV/MV transformers, MV cells, and LV switchgear are also included in the deals.

The German firm signs framework agreement with DNE Solar for the delivery of 300 MW of string inverters to be installed across South Korea.