From Volatility to Stability – Reducing currency risk through integrating locally-produced components

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SMA is tapping Australian-made medium-voltage expertise, and have integrated it into a new central inverter solution. The SMA Power Skid Australia is expected to result in reduced delivery times and will significantly reduce the considerable currency risk faced by PV project developers.

From SMA Bernhard Voll will join the discussion. Quantifying the currency risk, Voll says that given inverter/transformer units account for between 5 – 10% of the total costs of a utility scale PV array, and currency variation between the euro and Australian dollar 18%, the total saving can equate to around 2% of the project cost.

By producing locally, SMA reports that lead times can be substantially slashed, currency risk for developers reduced, import tariffs avoided and costs cut. “We wanted to provide a localised solution allowing for shorter lead times, easier compliance with Australian Standards, simple spare part management, more local content and a more tailored solution for the Australian Market,” says Bernhard Voll, the platform product manager medium voltage from SMA’s Business Unit Utility.

2018 is shaping to be a transformative year for the Australian large scale solar market. The APVI Solar in Australia report tallies the extraordinary expansion: from 114 MW grid connected in 2017, to 1.4 GW in 1H 2018, and an additional 1.9 GW currently under construction. Beyond 2018, there is a huge 35 GW of solar projects at various stages of development.

Warwick Johnston, the Managing Director of Australian PV consultancy SunWiz and one of the lead authors of the Solar in Australia Report, will present these findings.

Questions can be submitted beforehand or during the webinar through a chat window. Jonathan Gifford, Managing Editor, pv magazine global, will host the webinar. We look forward to your participation!