Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) recently released its Solar Module & Inverter Bankability 2019 report. For the first time, the company made investigations into solar inverters, surveying the bankability of several inverter brands.
‘Bankability’ means banks are more willing to offer non-recourse loans to photovoltaic power generation projects that opt to use a particular inverter brand.
Solis’ inverters ranked third for Asian brands: a testament to the brand’s products being well-recognised by global technical experts and respondents. This incredible result also means project developers are more likely to receive bank financing if they use Solis’ products over those of other brands.
With a team of experts spread across six continents, BNEF analyses complex data from around the globe to procure in-depth forecasts which highlight the financial, economic and political implications of industry-transforming trends and technologies.
For this survey, BNEF sought information from banks, developers and technical due diligence firms about which brands, out of 48 module manufacturers and 17 inverter manufacturers, they considered to be bankable.
Interestingly, regional differences are far starker when considering the bankability of inverters compared to modules. Unlike panels, inverters are less of a commodity as modules have only one function — producing energy — while inverters have multiple purposes. Aside from converting direct current into alternating current, inverters interact directly with the grid and aggregate power output data. As such, there are different types of inverters for different project requirements (for example, some projects require central inverters while string inverters are more suitable for others).
