Niestetal/Hamburg, Germany August 25, 2011 – For SMA Solar Technology AG, this year’s PV SEC in Hamburg is all about increasing efficiency. The world’s leading inverter manufacturer shows that innovative technologies can make a crucial contribution to reducing system costs with the right expertise. At PV SEC, SMA persuasively demonstrates innovative solutions central to the future of photovoltaics, in all business areas and power classes. SMA has become the first manufacturer to reach 99 percent maximum efficiency with the new Sunny Tripower 20000TL High Efficiency. The new 20-kVA device focuses on the essentials of inverter functionality, including mono-string design without a step-up converter and an optional DC disconnection, making it ideal for creating high-efficiency, medium to very high power PV plants.
The Medium Power Solutions segment addresses such future-oriented topics as solar energy self-consumption, smart grids and grid integration. SMA will be displaying the Sunny Boy HF and the Sunny Boy TL product ranges. All devices meet the requirements of the German VDE AR4105 code of practice. The OptiTrac Global Peak innovation was added to SMA’s proven MPP tracking system to ensure that maximum yields are achieved, even in partially shaded areas.
The new Sunny View enhances user convenience with a colour touch screen displaying all plant data, as a successor to the Sunny Beam. SMA developers have also been thinking creatively for Sunny Home Manager. Soon it will be able to directly control Miele household appliances that are smart grid (SG) ready, integrating them with intelligent load management. Users will benefit from household appliances operating normally while data is exchanged directly (selected program, running time and energy demand) with the Sunny Home Manager. This enables more precise self-consumption planning.
SMA will also introduce the principle behind the new TL Grounding Solution in the Power Plant Solutions segment. “Our highly efficient transformerless inverters with an add-on solution, based on this patented, circuit make it possible to operate decentralised large-scale PV plants incorporating any thin-film PV module. This can increase the yield by more than three percent and reduce overall system costs,” says Chief Technology Officer Roland Grebe, explaining the background of the SMA innovation.
SMA Utility Grade is an integrated concept for the realisation of PV power plants worldwide. It combines SMA system technology and services for power plant projects. “All products and services carrying this label meet the intensive, complex requirements placed on state-of-the-art, competitive power plants. We offer all system components from central and off-grid inverters and PV plant monitoring to medium voltage technology as a building set. Customers choose individual components or pre-configured and coordinated packages for centralised or decentralised plant designs. This streamlines the project business enormously,” according to Jürgen Reinert, Executive Vice President Technology for the Power Plant Solutions division.
SMA are presenting the utility grade Sunny Central 800CP, featuring the latest Optiprotect technology - which reliably detects string errors in the field and differentiates from temporary events such as cloud cover. This ensures that a maximum solar energy yield is achieved. The new SMA Power Plant Controller guarantees rapid collection and adjustment of grid parameters and the launch of a high-performance communication platform for the CP family represents an important step toward grid stability with large PV power plants using Sunny Central inverters.