Greentech Lead India: The market for inverters for
renewable energy applications will increase more than two fold and surpass $19
billion in 2017. The market totaled $7.2 billion in 2011. According to Pike
Research, The inverter industry is entering a dynamic point in its history and
undergoing an intense period of technological innovation, but it is also going
through a period of turmoil.
Europe will continue to be the leading market for
renewable energy inverters, over the next several years. Europe will account
for 43 percent of all renewable energy inverter capacity installed through
2017, led by solar PV inverters.
Asia Pacific region will follow Europe by installing 72
GW of renewable energy inverters on
the forecasted period. In North America the renewable energy inverter
installations will touch 66 GW by 2017.
The report forecasts that nearly 290 GW of
vendor-supplied inverter capacity will be installed worldwide across four
primary technologies – solar PV, small wind power, stationary fuel cells, and
vehicle-to-grid (V2G) enabled vehicles – between 2012 and 2017.
The report cautions inverter companies to increase
functionality, reduce cost, and differentiate themselves to avoid deleterious
effect.
“We have already witnessed the deleterious effect of
falling solar photovoltaic (PV) module prices on all but the most efficient
manufacturers. In order to avoid a similar fate, inverter companies must
increase functionality, reduce cost, and differentiate themselves from the
growing competition,” said research analyst Dexter Gauntlett.
“Incumbent inverter manufacturers SMA, Fronius, Satcon,
Power-One, KACO new energy, and Ingeteam have the advantages of size
and market reach, but disruptive technological innovation by well-funded
startups and early-stage companies like Enphase and SolarBridge is rapidly
changing the face of the industry,” added Gauntlett.