Solar Micro Inverter Market – Small Size but Huge Growth Ahead,Solar Microinverter Companies

Solar Microinverter Manufacturers have increased tremendously seeing the success of microinverter pioneer Enphase Energy.Though Enphase Energy was not the inventor of the Technology,it was the first microinverter company to make a successful niche and market the advantages of microinverters over traditional solar string inverters.A Host of Solar Microinverters/MPTT/DC-DC Optimizer Manufacturers have jumped into the fray as the $2 billion Solar Inverter Market in 2009 has expanded into a $5 billion market in 2010.

Solar Micro Inverter Market Size and Growth

Solar Microinverters typically sell for 75-90c/watt which means that if all the solar installations in the world at around 18 GW were done using microinverters,then the size of the addressable market would be $12.5-16 billion,however a lot of the installations are larger than 1 MW in which micro inverters are not used.Also micro inverters are mainly sold in the US and Canada so the total size of the addressable market becomes more like 500 MW which is around $$375-450 million dollars.Enphase Energy the biggest microinverter manufacturer has sold around 500,000 products which implies total lifetime revenues of around $40 million.According to IMS Research around 1 GW of microinverters would be installed in 2013 and the market size would be around $700 million.I think the market size will be greater given that other geographies have not been penetrated,the residential solar market is growing faster and more companies will lead to a bigger market

Solar Microinverter Companies

1. Enphase Energy – Enphase Energy is one of the most innovative solar startup companies that have come up in the USA especially without a billion dollar DOE Loan guarantee backing it up.The company has sold 500,000 microinverters till date and is expanding its footprint in JV with Siemens.
2. Solaredge – SolarEdge was established in 2006.In 2010, the company shipped an estimated 250,000 power optimizers and 12,000 inverters.The company has top VC Backers and produces microinverter by outsourcing manufacturing to top EMS provider Flextronics
3. Solarbridge – SolarBridge Technologies is based in Austin, Texas, with an R&D office in Champaign, Illinois. It sells the SolarBridge Pantheon microinverter with a 25-year warranty.Company has raised more than $27 million to date with Battery and Rho Ventures the main backers.
4. GreenRay Solar – Instead of Solar Microinverters it sells a unique Plug and Play AC Module which is name SunSine modules.

Other microinverter companies are Enecsys,Direct Grid and Sparq Systems.Note major Solar Inverter Manufacturers like SMA Solar and KACO have also introduced microinverters in their product lineups.