Photovoltaics iNvERtERs FRoM asia

Effi ciency versus price In the past, inverters from Asia only played a minor role in The dominance of European inverters in Asia has already signifi cantly diversifi ed and it does not re- key PV markets in Europe. Even in Asia itself, it was primarily quire a prophet to forecast that Europe and the in- the well-known European brands that were sold. But Asian creasingly important US market are likely to head in the same direction. In the future, there will be more manufacturers want to change the market. and more comparable devices at similar prices on the global market. Which is of course welcome news to n the past, the most important obstacle blocking the customer and last but not least will help spread the newcomers’ success was the effi ciency of the photovoltaic technology throughout the world. It Idevices offered. Because they barely came close seems certain that the majority of companies will to the models they were emulating. The higher the come from Asia too. Similarly to the module sector, costs of modules, the lower the importance of the Asia has very different companies with different back- inverter’s cost, but its effi ciency was all the more im- grounds and fi nancial options. The majority of com- portant. The reason is that one tenth of one percent panies stem from Taiwan, China and South Korea. in effi ciency loss means signifi cant extra investment As in the module sector, a vast number of invert- in modules if the same yield is to be obtained. ers are made by OEMs. In market surveys, this factor But last year in 2009, module prices declined regularly distorts the numbers actually made. OEMs worldwide by over 30 %. As a result, particularly in now publish their fi gures to include inverters made view of possible cost savings to come, the price of in- for other companies which in turn state the products verters is increasingly becoming a factor in the drive are made in-house. As a result, we have to assume to save money. Inverters have actually become cheap- that the numbers quoted for Asia are greater. In terms er and cheaper over the years. Especially if we look of the transformer, arguments are offered by both back a little further to the beginning of the 1990s sides that almost have a religious tinge. Particularly when a 1 kW system in Germany cost about € 13,500. in Asia, where power grids now provide a sporting Inverter costs accounted for 14.4 % of this fi gure, or challenge for engineers, both concepts have their jus- € 1,944 for 1 kW + € 350 for the DC connection box. tifi cation. As a result, power supply specialist Delta, Therefore the outlay for inverters then was the same tends to be on the side of the transformers’ advo- as the costs for the systems now. cates. Inverters made in Asia Delta Energy Systems

In the PV industry, the effect entitled the pig cycle is Employing 60,000 people and with sales of US$ 5.3 not unknown. Peaks in demand lead to an expansion billion, Delta is defi nitely one of the heavyweights in of capacities and when demand weakens, industry the inverter world, not just in Asia, but throughout suffers from a surfeit of capacity. However, different the globe. Back in 1999, Delta supplied the fi rst in- sectors of industry are in different phases of this type verters to Europe. Delta is global market leader in of cycle. Inverters are quite clearly enjoying a boom. power supplies. Nevertheless, Delta often tends to be

194 Sun & Wind Energy 5/2010 overlooked. The reason is the not ex- actly small OEM inverter production for customers, which are often very well known. Delta is one of the few manufacturers allowed to participate as an OEM manufacturer on the Japa- nese market. It even has market shares in the diffi cult Chinese market when taking into account OEM companies. Delta has given its products a com- plete overhaul for 2010. It will launch 15 completely updated inverters under the Solivia brand on the market. Soliv- ia stands for: Solar Inverters for Versa- tile and Intelligent Applications. The AP suffi x in the Sol 3.0 for Asia inverter’s name refers to Asia Pacifi c as the place they Pacifi c Photo: Delta are destined for. This also includes Australia. As out- lined above, all inverters are transformer inverters. Andreas Schmidt from Delta ES Germany ex- plains: “With the transformer concept and the Solivia series’ temperature stability, the inverter is ideal for particularly fl exible use in Asia/Pacifi c. In terms of cli- mate, this region is challenging. And it is in particular Effi ciency versus price its constant performance at temperatures up to 57 °C that predestines the inverter for use here. Mass pro- Inverter production at Sungrow: The company is the duction of the new series starts in April. We already leading inverter manufacturer in China. have a production capacity of 1 GW and will be able Photos (4): Sven Tetzlaff to deliver worldwide from June at the latest”. iNVERTERS FROM aSIA

All inverters are already certified. The Solivia ­series is guaranteed for five years, with five ­­- fur ­ ther years as an option. Recommended retail prices have not yet been established. From 2011, Delta wants to launch another module inverter on the mar- ket. Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd.

Sungrow was founded in 1997 by Renxian Cao and is today the leading manufacturer of inverters in China. “Sungrow’s market share in China is 70 percent. For 2010, we’re planning to sell 200 MW internationally and 250 MW on domestic markets”, reports Henry Zhu (Sungrow’s International Business Manager). To date, Sungrow has installed 380 MW in China, Spain, Italy and South Korea. In addition to network invert- ers for PV systems, Sungrow also makes inverters and load controls for wind power plants. Its portfolio ranges from 1.5 KW inverters (SG 1K5TL) to the 1.1 MW inverter system (SG1000KHV). Sungrow has inverters with and without trans- formers. In 2010, WR 3KTL (3 kW) and 4KTL (4 kW) and the SG100KU (100 kW) were just some of the products Sungrow launched. While the first two are destined for the international market, the SG100KU is intended primarily for the American market. Cur- rently, about 1,000 inverters per month go to Europe. As a result, the EU still receives about ¾ of Sungrow’s exports. Similarly to other companies, Sungrow is placing its bets on a strong North American market in order to counteract its dependence on Europe. To ob- tain a presence on both markets, Sungrow has its own branches in Italy, France and Canada. In contrast to Delta, Sungrow produces just for itself and markets the Sungrow brand worldwide. Suntech, and

Henry Zhu with 3KTL, 4KTL

196 Sun & Wind Energy 5/2010 other Chinese PV manufacturers have also success- the company also has off-grid inverters. The product fully pursued this route. portfolio for on-grid inverters ranges from 750 W up Similarly to Delta, Sungrow is placing its hopes to 7.5 kW. Aero-Sharp is clearly aiming for private on the Asian market and increasingly concentrating households as their potential customers. As a result, on markets like India, Thailand and Korea. Sungrow the second product line of off-grid inverters does confidently states that its current delivery time for have a point. Off-grid converter capacities range from ­inverters is five days (by air freight) or 22 days (by 1 to 5 kW. In 2009, Aero-Sharp sold 30 MW chiefly to ship). Europe. In 2010, it plans to sell 200 MW. Its main market is France. In 2009, Aero-Sharp said its share Samil Power Co., Ltd. of domestic sales amounted to 5 % and would possi- bly be 15 % in 2010. In comparison with the companies previously men- tioned, Samil Power is a very young company. In 2010 Anhui EHE New Samil Power wants to sell 120 MW – 30 % of this Energy Tech. Co., Ltd. ­figure as an OEM. Samil Power is also banking on the EU market and has already founded a branch there. Considering its age (founded in 2008) EHE’s product But Samil Power equally focuses on the Chinese and range is impressive. Similarly to Sungrow, EHE offers possibly American markets. According to our survey, everything from 1.5 kW to 1 MW. Furthermore, EHE al- Samil Power is expecting the biggest growth in China so produces solar lamps, solar lamp controls and in future. The company makes 1.5 kW (Solar River charge controller. In 2010, EHE wants to sell 10 MW, SR1K5TLA1) to 500 kW inverters (Solar Lake SL500K- 30 % of that figure as an OEM. According to EHE it ex- LVA1). ports 48 % of its products. Similarly to Aero-Sharp, EHE also offers off-grid inverters. As well as all other Shanghai Aero-Sharp Chinese suppliers, EHE is also pinning its hopes on Electric Technologies the Chinese market in the future. In addition to the above-mentioned manufactur- Shanghai Aero-Sharp Electric Technologies Co., Ltd. ers in China, there are also a huge number of un- is a subsidiary of Shanghai Aviation Electric Co., Ltd. named companies that have been involved with off- Similarly to Samil Power, Aero Sharp is quite new to grid inverters and now want to get into the on-grid the inverter market. In addition to the grid inverters, market. The major electronics companies in China are Photovoltaics iNVERTERS FROM aSIA

recommended retail price is to be around US$ 1,400. Manager Bri- an Lee comments: “Currently, our key markets are the Korean and Japanese. But we are also inter- ested in Europe and America. However, we don’t have the certif- icates required for these markets. At Intersolar, we will however be looking for suitable partners”. Seoltech Co., Ltd.

Seoltech is actually a small man- ufacturer of wind power systems (up to 100 kW). In addition to the generators, they also produce the blades and the inverters. These inverters can also be used for PV systems. The company has also been successfully selling com- plete solutions (wind turbines and inverters) to the UK, US and Thailand. They mostly supply in- Sungrow’s portfolio verters without turbines to Swit- ranges from 1.5 kW also still considering whether to offer these products zerland and the Netherlands. inverters to a 1.1 MW in the future. As a result, the Chint Group, that also Seoltech’s exports about 90 % of its products. inverter system. belongs to Astronergy, will soon be selling inverters. The inverters cost approx. US$ 1,500 and the com- plete system (3 kW wind turbine and inverter) Korean inverter manufacturers US$ 12,000. In 2010, Seoltech wants to expand its market share to a moderate US$ 1.2 million. The However, the biggest challenge to the Chinese invert- range of inverters spans the 3 kW mentioned to er manufacturers is not likely to be posed by Europe- 10 kW. The number of exports to the EU is 95 % and an, but rather Korean rivals. Similarly to China, nu- therefore very good for a wind/PV hybrid inverter. merous manufacturers have sprung up on the Korean Complete systems require about four weeks for deliv- market within a very short space of time. Including a ery. few big fish, like Hyundai or Samsung. Hyundai offers inverters ranging from 3 kW to 250 kW. As well as Japan modules, wind turbines and all other products for the RE industry. Of course, an overview of such a dynamic section of industry cannot pretend to be complete. It is howev- Victek Co., Ltd. er noticeable that Japanese manufacturers virtually play no role at all at present. There are currently no According to Victek it has the inverter with the great- ­ initiatives from what is, after all, est efficiency and lowest weight at the same time Asia’s second biggest economy. And the much-trum- (<15 kg). The Solarmate has 3.3 kW capacity and its peted comeback of the Japanese PV manufacturers efficiency is around >98 %. Victek aims to have all the has failed to appear till now. If we look at the figures certificates required by mid 2010. In 2011, it is aim- from manufacturers outside Japan that deliver to ing to sell approx. 10,000 in Japan and 50,000 world- ­Japan, even Japanese protectionism can no longer wide. Production capacity is around 100,000. The perform many wonders either.

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198 Sun & Wind Energy 5/2010 But since 2009, Korea is also increasingly start- ing to seal off the market. This move is basically di- rected against China, but also harms other producers and – as we can see by Japan’s example – mainly Ko- rea itself, even if just in the medium term. The most interesting issue will definitely be that of protection- ism once all Asian countries have their markets and the pig cycle moves out of the boom phase. It is diffi- cult to predict how long this will last, particularly as countries like Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are now nudging their way into the renewable energy business in a big way. Sven Tetzlaff

Further information: www.solar-inverter.com www.sungrowpower.com/en www.samilpower.com www.aero-sharp.com.cn www.ehexny.com www.hyundai-elec.com www.shi.samsung.co.kr www.victek.co.kr www.seoltech.com www.hypower.co.kr www.dongeiecos.com www.kmep.co.kr www.refu-korea.com www.solarplus.kr www.telda.co.kr www.tenkorea.co.kr www.willings.co.kr Gahee Lee with Seoltech 3 kW turbine and inverter