Advanced Energy Industries Enters Global Solar Inverter Market
Advanced Energy® Industries, Inc. (AE) announced that it is extending its portfolio of solar offerings with the new Solaron™ line of photovoltaic (PV) inverters. The product is described as an advanced, transformer-less, grid-tie PV inverter for commercial system installations-with breakthrough efficiency and durability.
Producing solar-generated electricity on a commercial scale can require large, up-front capital investments. In addition, commercially viable PV systems must be designed for easy integration, unmonitored operation and minimal maintenance over years of service. AE’s PV inverter technology is said to convert raw dc power from solar-cell arrays to high-quality ac-grid electricity, enabling commercial installations to produce targeted output power levels with fewer solar modules and potentially lower balance-of-system (BoS) costs than was previously possible. With 97% CEC-weighted efficiency, the new Solaron platform is claimed to enable integrators and independent power producers to realize a substantial return on their inverter investment alone.
"One of AE’s strengths is our ability to leverage technology in innovative ways that help extend our customers’ processes. Our world-class R&D teams insightfully leveraged our high power, thin-film process power technology to develop a commercial, grid-tie inverter platform with unsurpassed efficiency," observed Dr. Hans Betz, President and CEO of AE. "The result is a new, solar inverter platform with financial and reliability advantages for our customers. As we enter this exciting, high-growth and environmentally conscious market, we are well positioned with our technology and service infrastructure."
Designed for the North American market, the first model of the Solaron platform offers a durable, transformer-less, grid-tie design. The Solaron inverter achieves 97% CEC efficiency and is NRTL-certified to UL 1741. A wide MPP (maximum power point) tracking window is said to ensure maximum, day-long processing power, while both local and remote data access enables operators to monitor the system from anywhere at anytime.
