Inverters

SMA is offering a new line of four inverters with power ratings of 12kW, 15kW, 20kW and 25kW, for use in rooftop PV systems up to 135kW in size. It claims the inverters provide grid-compliant power control of entire systems and enable over-dimensioning of PV arrays by up to 150%.

The Chinese solar inverter manufacturer, which established its factory in India in 2018, has expanded the India fab capacity to 10GW/annum to serve different customer segments, including residential, commercial & industrial, and utility-scale—both locally and globally. 

Luminous’ Li-ON series 1250 inverter with integrated lithium-ion battery is a compact, safe, efficient power backup solution for retail and domestic applications. Its lithium battery has three times longer life than conventional batteries.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.

SMA’s new hybrid inverter reaches a maximum efficiency of 98.2% and a maximum European efficiency of 97.5%. It is compatible with DC-coupled high-voltage lithium-ion batteries from leading suppliers, according to the manufacturer.

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.

The DC-coupled battery has 94.5% round-trip efficiency and the inverter offers up to 11.4 kW power and 10.3 kW backup power.

Pyramid Electronics has unveiled three-phase string solar inverters based on silicon carbide power devices. The inverters are available in power ratings ranging from 5 kW to 15 kW, including models with three maximum power point trackers.

The 3 kW inverter has an efficiency of 95% and features a surge power of 9000 VA. According to the manufacturer, the device is compatible with mainstream lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.