The key to the development of the photovoltaic market: innovative inverters

Recent reports have shown that approximately 59% of PV project failure costs are due to PV inverters, a startling figure that reaffirms the correlation shown in an in-depth assessment of the PV inverter market and technology by GTM Market Research. However, the good news is that GTM's analysis believes that a new wave of new inverter technology (large-scale and residential markets) is expected to make significant improvements to this, and more importantly, significantly improve the applicability of utility-scale PV equipment and provide higher returns for residential equipment customers under the reduction of feed-in tariff subsidy rates.

“Advances in PV inverter technology are making solar more commercially viable,” said GTM analysts. “In large systems, grid support features such as fault penetration and reactive voltage support will make it more suitable for utility-scale devices and grid operators to integrate PV generation equipment into the grid. With small installations, microinverters and distributed power optimizers show their potential to reduce installation costs and improve system performance.”

According to the report, a large number of new technologies are being developed. These emerging models will also have an impact on the existing market leaders, which have been regarded as "a selected few" until now. According to GTM, 61% of the global photovoltaic inverter market is occupied by companies such as SMA, Power-One, Kaco New Energy and Fronius. Not only do the major emerging companies need to continue to innovate to enhance their competitiveness, but as markets outside Europe continue to form and develop rapidly, the European market also needs to diversify or face fierce competition from American and Asian manufacturers.

“As the PV inverter industry expands beyond Europe, we will face fierce competition from regional players in emerging markets such as North America and China,” the analyst said. “Establishing a link between technology differentiation and bankability has become a key focus for inverter manufacturers, especially those engaged in distributed generation optimization and inverter business. These companies have more than tripled their shipments in 2010 and have the potential to reach 4.6GW in 2015.”