Indian states continue to award solar power projects to big developers like Welspun Energy, Moser Baer and others despite shoddy performance by big power developers. Tata Power which is India’s biggest power utility in the private sector recently wrote a letter to numerous top officials recommending that the company be blacklisted from       […]

SMA Solar ,the biggest German Solar Energy company is now losing marketshare to the new solar inverter manufacturers in USA and China. Note SMA Solar held a dominating 40% solar inverter global marketshare in 2010 compared to the solar panel manufacturers none of which has managed more than a 10% marketshare . SMA Solar however is now feeling the heat of the competition as solar energy prices continue to go down steadily. The pressure on the solar inverter companies has been increasing as solar inverter prices as a percentage of the total solar system cost has risen from 5% to almost 10% now as solar panel prices have come down much more rapidly.

Satcon the US solar inverter producer has been 0ne of the worst hit solar inverter manufacturers and has seen massive reduction in revenues and profits.With the solar industry in massive oversupply,the photovoltaic inverter market has also seen a big hit.While the bigger solar inverter producers like SMA Solar and Power-One too have seen job reductions and revenue hits,Satcon has been worse hit due to its small scale.The company has now decided to slash 35% of its workforce consisting of 140 solar jobs due to the ongoing solar crisis.Note other solar companies in the USA such as Solyndra,Spectrawatt have completely closed down while the smaller ones are on the verge of closing as well.

GE is one of the biggest companies in the world and has one of the biggest Green businesses as well.GE is the most profitable wind turbine manufacturer and is one of the largest renewable energy developers in the globe as well.GE like other electrical and power conglomerates like Siemens has decided to invest billions of dollars into Green Energy.Till recently Solar Energy had gotten scant attention from GE just like Siemens too has not invested a lot.However the 50% CAGR rates of Solar Energy,the fast declining costs have made it imperative for GE to have a presence in this market.GE had bought a thin film solar company Prime Solar a few years ago to acquire the Cadmium Tellerium Technology which First Solar uses in its Solar Panels.

Xantrex Inverters are one of the most popular brands of solar inverters used in residential installations and come in a wide variety of models.Xantrex was one of the first companies to exclusively manufacture inverters for the photovoltaic market.The company was originaly based out of Canada and listed on the Toronta Stock Exchange.The company has offices in in the United States, Germany and Spain and China.The fortunes of the company changed when it was bought over by one of the biggest power equipment companies Schnieder Electric.However the solar inverters from Xantrex have retained their brand name even after the acquistion.Note Xantrex also manufactures solar inverter chargers and solar battery chargers .Xantrex focuses on the power electronics for boats, recreational vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, utility and automobiles.

Solectria Renewables LLC is a US based solar inverter company that was founded in 2005 in Massachusetts by a group of MIT engineers.The company has expanded quickly to 1 GW of grid tied pv inverter capacity in USA alone and is looking to set up smaller solar inverter factories in China and India which are looking to be the next high growth solar markets.Solectria Renewables specializes in large sized grid tie solar inverters ranging from 1.8 kilowatts to 500 kilowatt sizes.The company sells its solar inverter solutions to residential,commercial as well as utility customers.The company also sells a String Sizing Tool and SolRen monitoring software.The company received a grant to develop Smart Grid capable solar inverter from DOE.Note Solar Inverter Manufacturers are currently facing increased competition from Chinese low cost players as well as new companies.Satcon,AEIS and Power-One which are the biggest US Solar Inverter companies have already seen their revenue and profit growth go down due to decreased demand growth and falling prices.However there is greater differentiation and technology barriers in high end solar inverters than in solar panels in which Chinese are dominating currently.Solectria is differentiating itself by its decently priced solar inverters which are high efficiency pv inverters as well