Solar inverters evolve again, FSP plans to build future microgrids

FSP, a global power supply manufacturer, has been deeply rooted in Europe for more than 20 years and has won the trust of customers. Now it has participated in the Intersolar Solar Photovoltaic Exhibition in Munich, Germany for three consecutive years, presenting green energy solutions built by FSP from micro inverters, off-grid inverters, off-grid dual-use inverters to ION MATE/ION RACK and other products to attract more partners.

Looking at Europe, Germany plays a key role in global energy policy, so its every move affects market trends. Huang Shiqiang, senior manager of FSP's product and market strategy department, said that Europe developed solar energy earlier, and the German government used to subsidize pure grid-connected inverters. But since the year before last, the policy has changed, and only inverters with energy storage functions are subsidized, and pure grid-connected inverters are no longer subsidized. This is because too much solar power connected to the grid will have an impact on the grid, and the government also hopes to achieve a balance between supply and demand through "time-of-day electricity prices", so the policy is conducive to the promotion of energy storage inverters. This also means that the advancement of technology and the storage capacity have reached a certain level, and with policy incentives, this transformation will naturally come to fruition.

The product that can meet the above requirements is FSP's off-grid and on-grid dual-purpose inverter (HySpirit series Hybrid Inverter). In addition to serving as an emergency power system for the home (similar to an uninterruptible power supply system), when the solar power generation exceeds the household needs, the excess power can be stored for emergency use, or the stored power can be released during peak power consumption. If the solar power supply is insufficient, it can also be automatically supplemented from the grid during off-peak hours, realizing the smart power consumption function of self-generation and self-use, and peak-shaving and valley-filling, and power plants no longer have to work hard to maintain a relatively high reserve capacity.

As for the off-grid inverter that Quanhan is focusing on at the Intersolar this year, it is 30% smaller and 20% lighter than before, and can be more flexibly configured in households. General off-grid inverters often require batteries to operate, but Quanhan's new generation of off-grid inverters do not require batteries as a buffer system in sunny areas. The only difference is that the PV modules need to be connected in series with a higher voltage in exchange for more stable solar power generation. In addition, the inverter can still be used with traditional lead-acid batteries or the self-developed ION RACK lithium battery. ION RACK has a high energy density and a cycle life of more than seven times that of lead-acid batteries, which is conducive to the construction of household microgrids.

As for micro inverters, although they are not mainstream in the market, they are quite competitive in specific application scenarios. For example, California has NEC 690.12 regulations, which require that inverters must be able to shut down quickly (rapid shutdown) in an emergency, which is generally impossible for traditional string inverters. Secondly, traditional string inverters share a set of MPPT (Maximum power point tracking) for the entire solar cell string, but micro inverters have their own independent MPPT controllers for a single solar module, which can more efficiently convert the electricity generated by solar energy into the AC power required by the city power supply, and then connect it to the power grid. If we look at the average power generation as a whole in a year, micro inverters can be 15~20% higher than traditional string inverters.

In summary, FSP still focuses on household end users as its main customer base for solar power generation and energy storage systems. The goal is to bring solar energy systems to every household, and realize a self-generated and self-used microgrid (nano grid) for every household. The government only needs to stabilize the base load. In the future, with inverters and energy storage systems that FSP is good at, supplemented by the liberalization of the electricity industry or the government's time-of-day electricity price policy, we can jointly build an Eco System to realize the vision of green power generation and smart electricity use.