Review ecotec in

Growth in times of Apparently unaffected by the current financial crisis in Greece, the solar exhibition Ecotec once again attracted considerably more visitors troubletrouble than in the previous year. Photos (3): Alexios Alexander The 3rd international exhibition “Ecotec – Environmental solutions, to lightning protection and security sys- tems for PV parks. Technologies & Photovoltaic Systems” took place from 22nd to 25th April at the Expo exhibition centre. Black modules in fashion This time the fair attracted 235 exhibitors, 150 alone Due to “PV on roofs” programmes there is a new de- mand on markets: more size variability, and a more from the PV sector. aesthetic appearance. Variable-size black modules have also reached Greece now. Scheuten Solar Hellas e did not expect so many visitors, over S.A. has introduced a new high quality Multisol 22,000 this year,” says Michael Galanakis, ­German-made module P6-60 series with a power WSales Executive of Expo Athens. In 2009 range between 215 and 230 W. According to the com- there were 175 exhibitors in total and about 12,000 pany these modules are characterized by their long visitors. Absolutely all TV channels paid attention to service life (25 year power output warranty, 10 year the fair this year, especially the PV part. Furthermore, absolute product warranty), based on over twenty The energy yield of the horizon- organizers and exhibitors observed that visitors this years of experience. tal Solyndra panels of Phoenix year were much more familiar with the subject, Aleo Solar AG is playing an essential role in the Solar is competitive with that ­knowing exactly what they were looking for. PV Greek market. Of 36 MW installed and connected to produced by conventional mo- ­market structures in Greece now seem well develo- the grid in Greece by December 2009, more than dules mounted at a 30° angle. ped, and customers can find everything: from inves- 7 MW were Aleo panels. The company has introduced ting, complete equipment for PV parks and turn-key new black modules in its S 77 series with an output from 180 to 190 W. Aleo also provides complete solu- tions and equipment for the PV on roofs programme. SolarWorld also presented new black compact modules – the SW 145/150/155 mono black Sun- module+ series and the SW 220/225/230/235 (W) series. On modules installed in or after January 1st, 2010, SolarWorld gives a 5-year extended product warranty and a 25-year linear performance warranty. The company guarantees at least 97 % of the rated power in the first year and a maximum reduction in power of 0.7 % per year thereafter. Mitsubishi Electric has sold its own products in Greece for over 30 years. From January 2010 the com- pany has also had PV 175 to 190 W modules and off- grid inverters on the Greek market.

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from May 2010, the new Fronius central inverter se- ries Fronius CL will be available in Greece, a series which combines high-yield power electronics with a unique modular system design, making modules easy to install and reinstall. Data Venia, authorized representative of REFU Elektronik GmbH in Greece, presented the new Refusol solar inverter 010K (11 kW DC). A 1 MW PV plant with Refusol inverters, connected to the grid in January 2010, is the first big PV plant in Greece to use this type of inverters. According to tests, Refusol in- verters have an efficiency of 98 %, one of the highest values on the market. Together with central (up to 2,000 kW) inverters, Siemens presented two new product ranges: firstly, compact wall-mounted 3-phase Sinvert PVM invert- ers (available in 10, 13 and 17 kW), which the compa- Mechatron presented a new ny claims are ideal for medium-sized PV plants from smaller model of its Atlas Whitfield Solar, , is a new partic- 10 kW to the MW range, and secondly, gears ranging tracker with 50 m2 of surface ipant at Greek PV Fairs. The company exhibited low- from 1,000 to 45,000 Nm for solar trackers of all siz- for PV panels. cost solar concentrators and PV framing systems with es and types. The individual products are the SD15 - a two-axis tracking system. Because of low sensitivi- single-axis drive, and the two-axis drives TD20, TD30 ty to shadow effects, it could become a very useful so- and TD122. These compactly designed gears can be lution for flat Greek roofs, especially in Athens, which equipped with any motor (DC, AC, servo etc). are not large, are shadowed by TV antennas and have Conergy in Greece, which has stopped selling au- other equipment such as water heating systems in- tonomous (off-grid) PV systems, is now concentrating stalled there too. on grid-connected solutions. The company presented For the first time in Greece Phoenix Solar is sup- its IPG series S and T grid inverters ranging from 3 kW plying customers with its Solyndra panels with an to 16.3 kW. output of 173, 182, 191 and 200 W, specially devel- oped for flat rooftops. With a weight of 16 kg per Solar tracker solutions square metre the panel is particularly suited to indus- trial and commercial buildings. In comparison with NEDA AE, a company set up in 2006, has developed conventional mounting systems, Solyndra panels do and now presented its own interesting concept for not require a space to be left between them on flat trackers called NEDA, which is more than 2.5 m high rooftops to avoid shadowing, therefore allowing and which does not require a costly and time-­ much more rooftop surface to be covered with panels. consuming large-scale building license to be issued The energy yield of the Solyndra panels is competi- for its construction. The company has installed tive with that produced by conventional modules 405 kW of PV parks and has 4.2 MW under construc- mounted at a 30 degree angle. tion to be finished within 2010. According to the com- Of the four PV module manufacturers in Greece, pany, the NEDA tracker (circular) requires less land only two exhibitors at the fair presented PV modules space (about 2,000 m2 for a 130 kW PV park – circle “made in Greece”, namely Exel Group and Silicio. diameter 49 m, while other trackers require 4,000 m2) and consumes only about 60 % as much energy as New inverters standard trackers. Cretan Mechatron, supplier of the well-known At- SMA Hellas AE, market leader not only in the world but las Tracker T150 with an installation area of 160 m2, also in Greece, presented an entire range of inverters presented a lighter and smaller model T50 with 50 m2 for PV installations from kWs to MWs. This year at Eco- for installations on rugged land. tec, SMA presented its self-developed monitoring sys- Alexios Alexander tem including the Sunny Beam, which collects data Further information: from up to 12 inverters using Bluetooth technology. www.aleo-solar.gr The Sunny WebBox (with connection via Ethernet or an www.atlasolar.com internal modem) allows users to access their system www.conergy.com www.datavenia.gr performance data anytime, and can interface with up www.degerenergie.com to 50 Sunny Boy inverters and automatically post their www.fronius.com performance data to the company’s website. www.mitsubishielectric.com www.neda-associates.com From January 2010, Fronius, which seems to be in www.phoenixsolar.com second place after SMA in sales in Greece, presented www.scheutensolar.com the first transformerless PV inverter IG TL (3 to 5 kW) www.siemens.gr www.sma-hellas.gr in their range. It is very easy to install and uses a USB www.solarworld.de stick for collecting data during its operation. Starting www.whitfieldsolar.com

34 Sun & Wind Energy 6/2010