Solar Power International 2009, CYPRESS, USA: Mitsubishi Electric has introduced two photovoltaic (PV) inverters for the North American market: a 100kW model and a 250kW model.
This will make the company the first Japanese manufacturer to enter the North American large-scale PV inverter market. The inverters will be marketed in the United States by Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc., headquartered in Cypress, Calif.
To reduce system costs and fulfill maintenance needs for large industrial PV systems, there is not only demand from solar industry professionals for improved PV module efficiency, but also for higher efficiency PV inverters. (Inverters are an essential part of a PV system, converting DC electricity generated from solar cells into AC electricity for power grid use.)
“Solar installation companies and system integrators will benefit from our entry into the North America inverter marketplace,” says Gina Heng, general manager for Mitsubishi Electric’s Photovoltaic Division. “Now they will be able to buy both PV modules and high-efficiency inverters from the same manufacturer, making purchasing, installation and maintenance easier.”
Mitsubishi Electric recently announced the development of new technologies that will help achieve a CEC weighted efficiency rate of 97.5 percent, the highest rating in 100kW-480V PV inverters currently on the market.
Its PV inverters use the gradationally-controlled inverter technology and a transformer-less specification, which reduces voltage loss and decreases the weight of the inverter. The products are designed for indoor and outdoor use, including desert environments, areas with limited-access and other locations with severe conditions.
A prototype of the 100kW type will be on display at the Solar Power International 2009 in Anaheim, Calif., USA from October 27-29. The 100kW model is scheduled for an October 2010 launch and the 250kW model scheduled for April 2011.
Showing posts with label PV inverters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PV inverters. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Future trends in PV inverters and PV installation design
LYON, FRANCE: Yole Développement has released a new market & technology study dedicated to the photovoltaic inverters: PV Inverter Trends.
This analysis presents the existing PV inverter solutions and their main parameters evolution (size, efficiency, cost, reliability). PV Inverter Trends report allows to understand better the main technical challenges, current solutions and future trends regarding those parameters.
Source: Yole Développement
This market and technological study also includes an important topic, which has recently appeared as a key point for PV inverter business: the evolution of its environment.
Photovoltaic plants can have highly diversified structures due to plenty of characteristics: local configuration, presence of sources of shadow, distance between buildings, available area, and size of the installation, thus, one of the objectives of this report is to apprehend the evolution tendency for those architectures, and see the consequence on PV inverter systems and on players’ strategy.
Inverter market forecasts according to our segmentation – residential, industrial and buildings, solar farms – are shown and analyzed taking into account the 2009 crisis and impact on PV industry.
Market trends
PV inverter business is following general PV market trends: the latter being driven by financial supports provided by governments and development of well-established companies.
Yole Développement has estimated the 2008 PV inverter market a bit more than €2.5 billion, mainly driven by Spanish solar farm segment and German market. And Yole Développement does not expect 2009 PV inverter business to overcome this amount.
“Effectively, 2009 has faced the crisis and seen Spain cut out of its economical advantages, explained Brice Le Gouic, Market Analyst, Power Electronics & Compound Semiconductors at Yole Développement. On the other hand, 2009 has also seen the birth of new countries ready to implement PV as a new source of energy, meaning very interesting feed‐in tariffs and loans. And PV inverter for residential segment is now entering in a standardization era.”
Newest PV inverter developments have shown interesting results at different levels: evolution of key characteristics, efficiency, cost, reliability, use of new materials (SiC, GaN), and adoption of disruptive technologies like micro‐inverters -- all those parameters imply an important variety of players strategy.
Those latest advancements are having and will have consequent impacts on PV inverters themselves and on the environment into which they evolve: high-sized installation demand induces an increase of inverter size and centralization, and new inverter solutions provide atypical plant architectures.
Indeed, besides centralization trend and the objective to provide bigger inverters, micro-inverters appear as an alternative solution, challenging every well‐established characteristics of classical inverter industry.
Moreover, the recent acquisition of OKE by SMA is a revealing fact of micro‐inverters introduction on the market. As a consequence, those recent items have a significant impact on classical PV inverter business, industry and players.
Nevertheless, the early stage of production adoption of those technological products justifies Yole Développement’s estimation: “Micro‐inverters technology will stay below 1 percent of 2009 market, says Brice Le Gouic, from Yole Développement”.
Those technological breakthrough and the high opportunity that PV inverter market represents have a serious impact on players’ behaviors: most of them who used to consider the inverter as a final product, now sees an interest in integrating new functionalities for a quick return on investment of the global installation:
• Monitoring
• Electrical protection
• Services like on‐site maintenance, warranty, free software…
Thus, vertical integration of the PV supply chain keeps on evolving and companies are working closer on common objectives for an accurate and complete offer.
PV Inverter Trends: Catalogue price: Euros 3,690.
This analysis presents the existing PV inverter solutions and their main parameters evolution (size, efficiency, cost, reliability). PV Inverter Trends report allows to understand better the main technical challenges, current solutions and future trends regarding those parameters.
Source: Yole DéveloppementThis market and technological study also includes an important topic, which has recently appeared as a key point for PV inverter business: the evolution of its environment.
Photovoltaic plants can have highly diversified structures due to plenty of characteristics: local configuration, presence of sources of shadow, distance between buildings, available area, and size of the installation, thus, one of the objectives of this report is to apprehend the evolution tendency for those architectures, and see the consequence on PV inverter systems and on players’ strategy.
Inverter market forecasts according to our segmentation – residential, industrial and buildings, solar farms – are shown and analyzed taking into account the 2009 crisis and impact on PV industry.
Market trends
PV inverter business is following general PV market trends: the latter being driven by financial supports provided by governments and development of well-established companies.
Yole Développement has estimated the 2008 PV inverter market a bit more than €2.5 billion, mainly driven by Spanish solar farm segment and German market. And Yole Développement does not expect 2009 PV inverter business to overcome this amount.
“Effectively, 2009 has faced the crisis and seen Spain cut out of its economical advantages, explained Brice Le Gouic, Market Analyst, Power Electronics & Compound Semiconductors at Yole Développement. On the other hand, 2009 has also seen the birth of new countries ready to implement PV as a new source of energy, meaning very interesting feed‐in tariffs and loans. And PV inverter for residential segment is now entering in a standardization era.”
Newest PV inverter developments have shown interesting results at different levels: evolution of key characteristics, efficiency, cost, reliability, use of new materials (SiC, GaN), and adoption of disruptive technologies like micro‐inverters -- all those parameters imply an important variety of players strategy.
Those latest advancements are having and will have consequent impacts on PV inverters themselves and on the environment into which they evolve: high-sized installation demand induces an increase of inverter size and centralization, and new inverter solutions provide atypical plant architectures.
Indeed, besides centralization trend and the objective to provide bigger inverters, micro-inverters appear as an alternative solution, challenging every well‐established characteristics of classical inverter industry.
Moreover, the recent acquisition of OKE by SMA is a revealing fact of micro‐inverters introduction on the market. As a consequence, those recent items have a significant impact on classical PV inverter business, industry and players.
Nevertheless, the early stage of production adoption of those technological products justifies Yole Développement’s estimation: “Micro‐inverters technology will stay below 1 percent of 2009 market, says Brice Le Gouic, from Yole Développement”.
Those technological breakthrough and the high opportunity that PV inverter market represents have a serious impact on players’ behaviors: most of them who used to consider the inverter as a final product, now sees an interest in integrating new functionalities for a quick return on investment of the global installation:
• Monitoring
• Electrical protection
• Services like on‐site maintenance, warranty, free software…
Thus, vertical integration of the PV supply chain keeps on evolving and companies are working closer on common objectives for an accurate and complete offer.
PV Inverter Trends: Catalogue price: Euros 3,690.
Advanced Energy intros European version of Solaron 500 kW PV inverter
FORT COLLINS, USA: Advanced Energy Industries Inc. has introduced the Solaron 500E, a European model of its high-efficiency, transformerless, grid-tie photovoltaic (PV) inverter.
Operating at 500 kW, the Solaron 500E enables European commercial and utility-scale PV installations to achieve the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) in the industry by increasing energy harvests and by reducing balance-of-system (BoS) and operating and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Rated at a record-setting 97.5 percent CEC-weighted (97.7 percent European-weighted) efficiency, the Solaron inverter enables higher energy harvests through its robust controls and patented soft-switching technology.
The Solaron inverter's transformerless design eliminates the need for a step-up transformer and makes it smaller and lighter than competitive products. The design of the Solaron inverter also allows multiple inverter connections to a single medium-voltage transformer, minimizing the number of such transformers required for a system.
Additionally, the Solaron inverter comes in an outdoor-ready IP45 enclosure that eliminates the need for and the cost of additional heating and cooling systems. To reduce O&M costs, Advanced Energy offers industry-leading service and support, including extended warranties up to 20 years and customizable SafeGuard(R) service programs.
"Following the successful rollout of the Solaron platform in the US market, we are pleased to now offer the same industry-leading, high performance features to the European market," said Dr. Hans Betz, president and CEO of Advanced Energy Industries Inc.
"We believe our Solaron product delivers the most effective inverter solution and allows customers to achieve maximum power and cost performance from their systems."
Operating at 500 kW, the Solaron 500E enables European commercial and utility-scale PV installations to achieve the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) in the industry by increasing energy harvests and by reducing balance-of-system (BoS) and operating and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Rated at a record-setting 97.5 percent CEC-weighted (97.7 percent European-weighted) efficiency, the Solaron inverter enables higher energy harvests through its robust controls and patented soft-switching technology.
The Solaron inverter's transformerless design eliminates the need for a step-up transformer and makes it smaller and lighter than competitive products. The design of the Solaron inverter also allows multiple inverter connections to a single medium-voltage transformer, minimizing the number of such transformers required for a system.
Additionally, the Solaron inverter comes in an outdoor-ready IP45 enclosure that eliminates the need for and the cost of additional heating and cooling systems. To reduce O&M costs, Advanced Energy offers industry-leading service and support, including extended warranties up to 20 years and customizable SafeGuard(R) service programs.
"Following the successful rollout of the Solaron platform in the US market, we are pleased to now offer the same industry-leading, high performance features to the European market," said Dr. Hans Betz, president and CEO of Advanced Energy Industries Inc.
"We believe our Solaron product delivers the most effective inverter solution and allows customers to achieve maximum power and cost performance from their systems."
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
2009 remains cloudy for solar inverter market
WELLINGBOROUGH, UK: The global market for PV inverters is likely to fall by 27 percent this year to under $2 billion according to the latest analysis from IMS Research.
Despite the record growth seen in 2008, with the market growing by 95 percent to reach $2.5 billion, this year is set to be very different. IMS Research’s ongoing analysis of the market shows that in the first quarter of 2009 worldwide inverter shipments fell 45 percent compared to the previous year.
Research analyst and report co-author, Sam Wilkinson commented: “A sharp decrease in inverter shipments in 2009 is forecast due to four key factors: the restricted access to credit which has delayed major projects, the 500MW cap implemented by Spain’s Government, the particularly harsh winter in Europe which has delayed installations and the sudden drop in PV module prices.”
Wilkinson added: “We have seen falling module prices having an adverse affect on the market as suppliers have reduced prices so dramatically that end users are now waiting further in order to buy at the lowest possible price.”
Wilkinson continued, “Although this year the outlook for the market is not good, it is forecast to continue growing from 2010 onwards, exceeding $4 billion in the next five years.”
Despite the record growth seen in 2008, with the market growing by 95 percent to reach $2.5 billion, this year is set to be very different. IMS Research’s ongoing analysis of the market shows that in the first quarter of 2009 worldwide inverter shipments fell 45 percent compared to the previous year.
Research analyst and report co-author, Sam Wilkinson commented: “A sharp decrease in inverter shipments in 2009 is forecast due to four key factors: the restricted access to credit which has delayed major projects, the 500MW cap implemented by Spain’s Government, the particularly harsh winter in Europe which has delayed installations and the sudden drop in PV module prices.”
Wilkinson added: “We have seen falling module prices having an adverse affect on the market as suppliers have reduced prices so dramatically that end users are now waiting further in order to buy at the lowest possible price.”
Wilkinson continued, “Although this year the outlook for the market is not good, it is forecast to continue growing from 2010 onwards, exceeding $4 billion in the next five years.”
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