DC Optimized Inverter, SolarEdge's Solution to Help PV Power Plants Reduce Costs and Increase Revenue

In terms of the current development of Taiwan's solar energy market, competition in the power plant installation business is becoming increasingly fierce. As the cost per watt of solar energy hardware decreases, the profits of installers are also decreasing. Therefore, installers are all looking for ways to improve their competitiveness and increase their profits. In this process, selecting inverters is the key.

Although inverters only account for about 10% of the cost of a solar system, they significantly affect indirect costs such as licensing, customer acquisition, BoS costs, labor and other related costs, and inverters also affect secondary costs including monitoring, reporting and maintenance. SolarEdge DC optimized inverter solutions not only reduce the above costs, but also help installers optimize their solar business.

Traditional solar inverters have two major functions: converting DC to AC and tracking the maximum power point of the string. If the functions of traditional inverters are split into two, power optimizers can maximize the power generation of each photovoltaic module. The simplified inverter is only responsible for the conversion of DC and AC and grid management. SolarEdge can overcome the existing shortcomings of traditional inverters. This solution not only provides many advantages to system owners, but also provides value to installers.

By connecting a single PV module to a power optimizer, the power generation capacity of each PV module can be optimized. By mitigating the power differences of PV module levels, the power generation of a single PV module can be maximized, thereby increasing power generation and helping owners increase system power output. Higher solar system power generation and return on investment can help installers win more projects.

In addition, SolarEdge DC-optimized inverters allow installers and system owners to benefit from unlimited power plant design. Regardless of temperature or string length, the string voltage of the SolarEdge system is always fixed, allowing longer strings and reducing BoS costs. The SolarEdge solution allows installers to use parallel strings of unequal lengths, PV module installation and capacity in different directions, and layouts in a single string system design. The simplicity of design allows installers to greatly improve the time efficiency of solar system design.

In addition, the design flexibility allows each string to be up to 12.75kWp. The longer string design not only reduces the number of installed strings, but also reduces BoS costs by up to 50%, helping installers to be more competitive in system power generation and quotation.

Another advantage of SolarEdge DC optimized inverter solution in design flexibility is that it can maximize the system construction volume. Combining the above advantages, SolarEdge can enable rooftop systems to adopt more photovoltaic module designs. For system owners, it means increased power generation and increased revenue; for installers, it provides a competitive advantage and helps to increase the average profit of each installation operation.

The safety of solar systems is also very important. According to the Taiwan Fire Department's firefighting guidelines, when a solar system on a building's rooftop catches fire, firefighters must not rush to put out the fire with water, otherwise the DC voltage of the panels will cause a risk of electric shock. Firefighters should instead use dry chemical powder and inert gas to extinguish the fire, or wait for the fire in the solar power plant to extinguish naturally, but this will cause property damage and financial losses. SolarEdge systems have built-in SafeDC? technology at no additional cost or design. With the SolarEdge system, as soon as the AC power is turned off, the DC voltage line will be reduced to a safe level. The power optimizer will reduce the DC voltage of the solar line to protect the personal safety of installers, maintenance personnel and firefighters.

As solar systems age, system owners and installation companies alike face rising operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. But with SolarEdge’s free cloud-based PV module-level monitoring platform, potential shortcomings can be turned into great opportunities. PV module-level performance monitoring, automatic alerts, and remote troubleshooting can save installers from traveling back and forth between sites, reduce time spent on site, and system owners can increase system uptime. In fact, installers can provide system owners with different levels of O&M services, turning O&M into a potential new source of revenue.

The bottom line is that SolarEdge DC-optimized inverter solutions deliver value throughout the supply chain, helping installers increase revenue and reduce expenses while improving system owners’ return on investment.