Utility-scale Solar Inverters

The Utility-scale Solar Inverters Market Research Study delivers current market analysis plus a five year market and technology forecast.

​Solar Inverter Technologies Enhance Utility PV Plant Options

A utility-scale solar facility is one that generates solar power and feeds it into the grid, supplying a utility with energy based on a Power Purchase Agreement with a utility, guaranteeing a market for its energy for a fixed term of time.  Utility-scale inverters are the mainstay of the utility-scale solar industry, and this research focuses on those inverters.

Historically, the market was easily defined by the inverter size, typically a central inverter, but as inverter technology has evolved and the unit price gap has greatly diminished, the string inverters have become a good viable option.

Physically, string inverters can be more easily transported to, and installed in, remote locations, especially those with geographically challenged sites, like islands, lakes, mountains, high altitudes, jungles, etc. 

The modular central inverters combine several smaller central inverters as modules to make a larger modular central inverter, creating greater design flexibility and improved redundancy.

1,500 Vdc solar plants and inverters are now the new norm.  The higher voltage systems enable longer strings, which allow for fewer inverters, combiner boxes, and other BOS components, less wiring and trenching, and therefore less labor. 

As the demand for reliable electricity escalates in remote rural villages and towns and other almost inaccessible geographical areas, the need for utility-scale microgrids is growing.  All the elements (string inverters, battery backup/inverters) are there, and they solve the problem.

Utility-scale Solar Inverters Market Trends

Increasing acceptance of solar energy, evolving inverter technologies, and a pent-up demand for reliable electricity from areas with either no or unreliable electricity are driving the industry and market.

• Are different strategies required for new installations vs. retrofit?
• Will new distribution channels and/or partners be required?
• How critical is initial cost in relation to lifecycle cost, and what inverter type best fits the problem?
• How will three-phase string inverters impact the total market?

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