Power-One three phase inverters have recently been used in two large scale solar parks in Europe. Now owned by ABB, the solar inverter giant may well overtake SMA to be the largest inverter manufacturer.

Power-One has announced that the previously reported 8.1MW solar system installed over two warehouse rooftops in Germany used their inverters. The 33 000 panels fitted on Pfenning Logistics distribution centre used 255 Power-One Aurora Trio 27.6-TL-OUTD Inverters. The three phase inverters have two independent MPP Trackers and have efficiencies of around 98.3%.

Technical Director of WIRSOL, Mirko Schieszl said that Power-One inverters were used as they are low maintenance in terms of cost and don’t require highly trained professionals. Power-One’s Gerhard Schackert  said the massive installation shows PV still pays off in Germany, even in the face of feed in tariff reductions.

“With the rising cost of electricity, PV installations especially offer companies with high energy consumption an attractive option to reduce their energy bills by producing a portion of the electricity required by themselves.”

Power-One has also announced that their inverters were used in a 1.5MW solar park near Oranai, Lithuania. The solar park is one of the country’s largest systems and was installed by Lithuanian company, UAB Solar LT.

6 224 solar panels were installed on 3.98 hectares using 48 Power-One Aurora Trio 27.6 string inverters and one Power-One Aurora Trio 20.0 string inverter. The solar system was connected to the grid in the middle of May 2013 and has already produced over 781MWhrs of clean energy, powering around 200 three person households in Lithuania. The solar park saves over 430 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

“We are delighted to be one of the first Lithuanian companies deploying Power-One string-inverters,” said Zilvinas Skardzius from UAB SOLAR LT. “Due to their wide input voltage range they were the perfect choice for this region with its comparatively low solar irradiation.”

“This exciting project gave us the opportunity to support UAB SOLAR LT in their pioneer work for PV energy in this region,” added Gerhard Schackert. “It is very impressive how the company strives to promote solar energy projects in Lithuania and we are looking forward to supporting them further.”