- How has the year 2020 been overall for the inverter industry and particularly for SofarSolar?
2020 is the key year for India’s PV industry to go to grid parity from bidding subsidies, which means that grid companies not only meet the new energy efficiency assessment demands, but also put forward the requirements of power quality and grid friendliness to the PV industry. The company has a total manufacturing capacity of 10 GW with a Year on Year growth of more than 20 per cent. However, currently with the impact of Covid – 19, “The entire world is on edge with the Coronavirus epidemic, it is a very bad impact on global economy, despite, our team is available to support clients in the best possible way during these times.” Impact of the Coronavirus mostly affected our first-quarter growth due to the highly impact of Coronavirus on China, where our manufacturing plant is situated in Shenzhen. Then, in India also our business affected upto some extent in the second and third quarters as well. Also, we are not sure about fourth quarter up-down business growth due to Corona , although, nowadays the renewable sector is doing well in India.
2. You offer a range of inverter products. Could you highlight the top three qualities of your inverters which differentiate them from competitors?
Solar system is playing an important role, given that they will soon be the most cost-effective energy source in all over the world. Now, with so many solar inverters of different brands available in the market, it can be a challenge to select the correct inverter for your roof-top solar plant. It is important to note that some brands such as SOFARSOLAR is a was established in 2013, specializes in R&D, production, sales and service of grid-tied inverters ranging from 1kW to 7.5kW (residential), 10kW to 70kW (industrial and commercial ) 100kW to 255kW (commercial) and Hybrid inverters ranging from 3kW to 20kW. SOFARSOLAR is currently known to be one of the top 5 string inverter companies found throughout China & in India.
Wrf. very high demand products in the market about 100kw system SOFARSOLAR have very technically –unique features as compared to different competitors products.
- Some competitors brand inverter don’t have Differential Mode Inductance, multiple units connected to the grid will cause oscillation and affect the stability of the utility grid; While SOFAR has same design as add Differential Mode Inductance on output side to minimize the effect on utility grid.
- Some competitors brand BOOST circuit use single tube so it is less reliable, diode use SIC with small current and no anti-surge diode which may have the possibility of lightning stroke; while SOFAR use IGBT module that is much more reliable.
- Some competitor brands use “I” shape topology which only has two control clips and the control system has no CPLD clip. That design could cause overvoltage and affect the reliability of the inverter.
3.Please tell us how you facilitate R&D for bringing about innovation as that plays an essential role in the competitive inverter industry.
SOFARSOLAR modern factory is located in Dongguan, covering an area of more than 40, 000 square meters, with a number of fully automated production lines, where there are six 100% inspection links from the component incoming to the product delivery to guarantee the product quality from the source, and modern laboratory and burn-in room to escort the product quality continuously.
SOFARSOLAR has always pursued excellence products and services to meet the growing demands of customers. For more than ten years, SOFARSOLAR always followed the philosophy of continuous innovation and loyal operation, and focusing on the development, production, sales and service of PV inverters, energy storage inverters, batteries, charging platforms etc. By using globally-recognized components’ brand, SOFARSOLAR product is extending the life span of products used within the power grid. Meanwhile, Sofarsolar inverters have a upgraded technology （e.g Built in DC switch,IV curve intelligent scan,Audible alarm, Ground fault monitoring, Integrated zero export function, Support for remote firmware upgrade function, Parallel function of energy storage multiple machines, Three-phase energy storage supports the unbalanced use of three-phase loads,etc)
4. Which are some of the major new projects for you in the pipeline for the coming year?
In the 2021 year Sofarsolar is very aggressive with a new agenda for business expansion with new innovative products along with some up-gradation on current products. Yes, we have EV Charger products and already our management has decided to come with this in the India market with our quality products. Also discussions are going on with some Indian reputed companies about EV Chargers. We believe EV chargers and Li-Ion batteries have good scope in Indian market. For future scope, Sofarsolar is very much interested in EV segment business in India.
5. What are some of the upcoming trends in the inverter industry globally and in India?
We will launch several new products; 255KW with 1500V string inverter for large-scale applications, 80-136kw 1100V string grid-tied PV Inverter, The 1500 V string inverter is for large utility-scale power plants. It has 12 maximum power point tracking (MPPT) channels and 24 string inputs. Transformer less compact Hybrid inverter, Storage inverter, EV Chargers, LI-Ion Batteries will be an upcoming trend with upgraded technologies in the coming years.
