MARKETNEWS Instability promotes innovation
THERE is 28GW of total PV installed capacity in Europe, which equals the electricity consumption of approximately 10 million households. With the Feed in Tariff instability across Europe it means the speed of future PV installations will see a slower growth rate, as investors reconsider and recalculate their ROI.
This means now more than ever, the European solar developers and EPCs are focusing their efforts into harvesting every kilowatt-hour possible to drive investor confidence but more importantly to optimise plant output.
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Yet, balance of systems (BoS) has barely earned a second glance. However, these components account for slightly more than 50% of the cost of a total system. More significantly BoS components offer a largely untapped opportunity to improve the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar plants. Actually ensuring the plant performs as expected and within budget is an engineering challenge that poses many difficult design questions. Any slight miscalculation in LCOE dramatically
impacts the bottom line, and in a market where every cent counts developers could soon be running unprofitable plants. Also the reassurance of buying cheap modules for quick cost reductions is no longer an option with market prices stabilizing, and with poor quality products running the risk of lower efficiency. That’s why balance of system engineering is pivotal in squeezing out efficiency gains that could drive plant efficiency.
Whether it be poor component selection, flawed plant layout, costly wire design or badly executed O&M, balance of system engineering done inadequately costs time, money and output. The European’s
European inverters dominate market
POWER-ONE was the PV inverter market’s largest share gainer in 2010, moving up to second in the global rankings according to IMS Research’s latest report on the market. The report will also reveal that for the first time all of the top 10 suppliers to the market in 2010 were European – largely due to the explosive market growth in key European markets that these suppliers enjoyed. The top five gainers in market share in 2010 were Power-One, Siemens, Advanced Energy, Sungrow and Danfoss.
IMS Research’s new report has found that the global PV inverter market grew 140% in 2010 with core European markets Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and France the main drivers. The recently released rankings of market share gainers have revealed however that some suppliers performed significantly better than others. “During 2010 exceptional demand meant that component shortages blighted the industry and lead-times for many suppliers extended up to 30 weeks. Suppliers that were able to source components benefitted with Power-One
being a prime example.” PV market analyst Tom Haddon commented.
Power-One, Siemens, Advanced Energy, Sungrow and Danfoss were revealed as the top five market share gainers in 2010, though IMS Research has identified several different reasons for their success. ”Growth of the small three-phase inverter market for units rated between 10 and 20kW, helped suppliers such as Danfoss Solar Inverters, Refu Elektronik and Siemens gain considerable share and move up the rankings”, explained Haddon.
High growth is forecast for the North American market in 2011 which may benefit domestic suppliers such as Satcon and Advanced Energy, which already performed very well in 2010 and were the highest ranked non-European supplier and biggest ranking gainer respectively.
Advanced Energy was the third largest market share gainer last year, largely due to its earlier acquisition of rival PV Powered.
experience and more mature solar farm market means leading companies such as 9REN, Phoenix Solar, Juwi, and Gehrlicher hold valuable information and have hundreds of MW experience in plant optimisation. For the PV industry to continue growing its GW capacity it is critical for the PV players to have an effective strategy in order to prevent lower efficiencies, higher costs and an exceptionally high LCOE – what does this mean? The PV industry in the Europe need to stop relying on the safety net provided by Feed in Tariffs and design, build and construct PV plants that are efficient and profitable.
PV Insider have organised an forum where the leading PV developers and EPC’s will be presenting on the key issues facing Balance of System engineering, including: inverter reliability & durability, mounting, corner junction boxes, wiring design, string level monitoring, inverter monitoring, 1-axis & 2-axis trackers, grounding lugs, roof membranes, as well as warranties and shaping component standards.
2011 presents very different opportunities and challenges for suppliers as the industry grapples with excess inventory due to oversupply in 2010 and a shifting balance in power towards Asia and North America.
Analyst Tom Haddon concluded, “During 2010, the PV inverter market was very European centric with over 80% of shipments destined for here. However with faster growth now forecast in non- European emerging markets such as the USA, China and India, opportunities for European-focused suppliers to gain share may be limited.”
www.solar-pv-management.com Issue V 2011
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