Milestone Installation For Photovoltaic Microinverters
August 16, 2013 // Renewable Energy World
Enphase Energy has announced a 2.3-MW solar installation at Ontario, Canada’s Vine Fresh Produce. The installation is the largest commercial rooftop project yet under the province’s feed-in tariff, and will use more than 9,000 microinverters. Features such as module-level monitoring, increased energy yield and improved safety are the main reasons why microinverters are starting to catch on.
According to analysis firm IHS Research, shipments of photovoltaic (PV) microinverters, traditionally used in smaller rooftop solar installations, are forecasted to exceed 2 GW in 2017. Prior to 2013, the U.S. accounted for 75 percent of the shipments IHS recorded. Penetration into larger installations, such as Enphase’s latest project, will be key to the growth of the microinverter market for solar as it expands outside the U.S. and residential segment. IHS estimates in the next five years, microinverter use in commercial installations will grow by more than 20 times the amount used in 2012, amounting to 700 MW in 2017.
