I wasn’t certain what to anticipate in my many conferences with photo voltaic inverter corporations, from residential to utility-scale, at RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas. I got here away from the present feeling way more optimistic in regards to the 12 months forward than I believed I’d be.
A dialog with Wooden Mackenzie analyst Joe Shangraw, who focuses on inverters and trackers, echoed the feelings I heard at many sales space visits: Demand for inverters is excessive proper now as builders rush to safe-harbor tools earlier than FEOC necessities kick in in January. And Shangraw expects sturdy demand to proceed from January to July’s start-construction deadline for the ITC.
Right here’s a recap of among the new inverter merchandise I noticed throughout my week in Vegas.
Residential inverters
With the tip of the residential photo voltaic ITC looming, small-scale inverter corporations are leaning even tougher into resilient photo voltaic + storage options, house power administration and even some distinctive use-cases like balcony photo voltaic. Based on Shangraw, the key residential inverter producers are centered on successful the power storage battle as these attachment charges simply maintain rising.
SolarEdge’s Nexis system.
SolarEdge’s Nexis battery block is a modular, snap-together LFP battery. The built-in 13.5 kW inverter has a single SKU for simplified distribution. When paired with the SolarEdge meter collar made in partnership with ConnectDER, installers can typically keep away from primary panel upgrades for extra inexpensive house power upgrades.
The Hoymiles HiFlow 800 Professional.
The brand new HiFlow microinverter by Hoymiles is designed for porch or balcony photo voltaic, a standard follow in Europe that’s solely beginning to be permitted in the US. Utah is to date the one state to permit this sort of “plug-in solar” with out permits or interconnection agreements, however Hoymiles is getting forward of potential demand. The HiFlow is Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-integrated and pairs with a 2-kWh battery.
Enphase’s smaller industrial microinverter.
Enphase’s second-gen industrial microinverter, the 480-V IQ9, now makes use of gallium nitride expertise, changing silicon carbide for a stronger and smaller product. The corporate’s newest solar + storage package incorporates a 10-kWh domestically manufactured battery to compete with Tesla and different residential battery makers. Enphase can also be making a meter collar to chop again on primary panel upgrades.
Giant-scale inverters
Giant-scale inverter producers stay optimistic in regards to the market and demand as builders rush to safe-harbor supplies to start out building earlier than the ITC cutoff. Nonetheless, producers are including new choices for retrofitting in case of a growth in that market when the ITC ends.
Listed here are some large-scale inverter releases:
CPS’s 250-kW 600-V inverter.
CPS’s 600-V inverter is supposed for longevity and straightforward O&M — 600-V BOS merchandise are broadly obtainable and may be sourced domestically as a substitute of customized to the photo voltaic business. These 250-kW inverters include each distributed and centralized wire field choices and are additionally supplied in a skidded resolution.
SMA’s Sunny Highpower PEAK3 Flex.
SMA’s new Peak3 Flex for the C&I market is a variable nameplate inverter that permits installers to set any energy class wanted between 52 and 172 kW within the discipline and generate a manufacturing unit label. The Flex is very useful for matching voltage wants in repowering tasks.
Yaskawa Solectria has launched its largest industrial inverter but — the 1,000-V PVI 100TL. The inverter geared towards rooftop installs options six MPPTS and electrically remoted grounds. The PVI 100TL additionally removes the LCD display, which may degrade and grow to be unreadable over time within the solar. The inverter has a built-in APsmart fast shutdown transmitter if an installer chooses APsystems for RSD.
Sungrow’s PowerStack 255CS.
Sungrow’s 125-kW PowerStack 255CS is a liquid-cooled battery for C&I power storage tasks. The PowerStack can be utilized for backup energy, but additionally for peak shaving and demand cost financial savings. It shares some key elements, together with the cooling mechanism and battery administration system, with the brand new PowerTitan 3.0 AC block BESS for large-scale storage purposes.
Trending Merchandise
