Microinverters used for large scale Canadian project
Enphase's large scale success signals major development for microinverter growth
Enphase Energy has announced a 2.3MW (2MW AC) solar project at Vine Fresh Produce, Ltd., in Ontario, Canada, using the Enphase System. The three-phase commercial system is the largest rooftop solar PV array as part of the province's Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program. Sentinel Solar of Vaughan, ON, managed the installation of over 9,000 Enphase M215 Microinverters and Jinko solar modules mounted to Vine Fresh Produce's existing greenhouse building.
"From a small 2kW micro-FIT system to Ontario's largest commercial array on the FIT program, Enphase has proven to be the ideal solution for our customers in Canada," said Jeff Loebbaka, SVP of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations. "We are proud to work with Sentinel Solar, our oldest partner in Canada, to help make solar history for Ontario and for Enphase. This milestone project is Enphase's largest announced to date."
The solar array at Vine Fresh Produce, Ltd., a southern Ontario greenhouse operator, replaces part of the roof structure of a large greenhouse facility, leaving the underside of each solar module exposed underneath. This gives Sentinel and its customer easy access to each module and microinverter without having to navigate on top of a roof, allowing for simplified maintenance of the system. The simplicity of Enphase microinverters combined with the safety of an all-AC system allows the owner of Vine Fresh Produce to participate in the installation and maintenance of his own solar investment.
"We have been fortunate to represent Enphase from the start in the Canadian market," said Adam Webb, president of Sentinel Solar. "By designing the system around Enphase we were able to complete the project on time and on budget. This installation is the result of a year's hard work by our team and partners and is one of many Sentinel-designed commercial installations."
The Enphase Microinverter System offers a new approach to the installation, operation and maintenance of solar energy systems. Enphase Microinverters, the Envoy Communications Gateway and Enlighten web-based software platform work together to deliver increased energy harvest and unparalleled solar system intelligence. To date, Enphase has shipped over 3.7 million microinverters and is selling into eleven countries across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
PV microinverter shipments are forecast to exceed 2 GW in 2017 according to the latest on-going analysis from IHS. Penetration into these larger installations, along with success outside USA, will be the key driver to this success.
IHS forecasts that over 700 MW of commercial installations will use microinverters in 2017 "“ more than 20 times the amount installed in this sector in 2012 "“ and generating microinverter revenues of more than $200m. Previously, the market had been largely confined to the US residential market, which had accounted for nearly 75% of shipments recorded prior to 2013. Embedded module-level monitoring, increased yield, and improved safety have enabled microinverters to successfully penetrate into MW-scale installations in 2013. These benefits will also lead to commercial installations accounting for over one-third of microinverter shipments in 2017.
As microinverters are now getting close to saturation point within the residential sector in many states in the US, and as they have not proved very popular so far within the third-party ownership model, the ability for microinverter vendors like Enphase to penetrate segments outside of residential and outside of the USA will be crucial to their success and perhaps even their survival.
