I wasn’t positive what to anticipate in my many conferences with photo voltaic inverter firms, from residential to utility-scale, at RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas. I got here away from the present feeling way more constructive in regards to the yr forward than I believed I’d be.
A dialog with Wooden Mackenzie analyst Joe Shangraw, who makes a speciality of inverters and trackers, echoed the emotions 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 a number of 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 firms are leaning even more durable into resilient photo voltaic + storage options, dwelling vitality administration and even some distinctive use-cases like balcony photo voltaic. In keeping with Shangraw, the main residential inverter producers are targeted on successful the vitality storage battle as these attachment charges simply preserve 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 usually keep away from predominant panel upgrades for extra reasonably priced dwelling vitality upgrades.
The Hoymiles HiFlow 800 Professional.
The brand new HiFlow microinverter by Hoymiles is designed for porch or balcony photo voltaic, a standard apply in Europe that’s solely beginning to be permitted in the USA. Utah is to this point the one state to permit this type 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 business microinverter.
Enphase’s second-gen business 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 encompasses a 10-kWh domestically manufactured battery to compete with Tesla and different residential battery makers. Enphase can be making a meter collar to chop again on predominant 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 begin development 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 extensively out there and will be sourced regionally as an alternative of customized to the photo voltaic trade. These 250-kW inverters include each distributed and centralized wire field choices and are additionally supplied in a skidded answer.
SMA’s Sunny Highpower PEAK3 Flex.
SMA’s new Peak3 Flex for the C&I market is a variable nameplate inverter that enables installers to set any energy class wanted between 52 and 172 kW within the area and generate a manufacturing unit label. The Flex is very useful for matching voltage wants in repowering initiatives.
Yaskawa Solectria has launched its largest business 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 screen, which might degrade and develop into 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 vitality storage initiatives. The PowerStack can be utilized for backup energy, but in addition 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.
