Intersolar 2017 review

Intersolar Europe is the most important trade show for Photovoltaic. Every year innovations and latest developments are being presented at the fair in Munich, Germany. The team of maxx-solar academy attended the show and now shares the most relevant discoveries with you.

The new Sunny Island

SMA Solar Technology presented their new Sunny Island. They keep the popular concept but optimised it to make it more user-friendly. No more endless clicking on the Sunny Remote Control, the programming is now possible usining a smartphone or tablet app. Also the Sunny Home Manager is not necessary anymore and the speedwire which had to be purchased separately now comes already built in. Also price-wise the back-up wonder machine became more efficient. Less extra components and only one main device lead to a lower price and the warranty has been increased to 10 years.

Our thoughts: Thanks for getting rid of the 1000 extra gadgets, that was long overdue! Thrilled to hear first field experience from our alumni.

Steca Off-grid Allrounder

Steca Elektronik released an all-in-one off-grid solution that combines an MPPT charge controller and sine wave inverter in one device. The Steca Solarix PLI can be programmed in any possible way and allows the connection to the grid as well as a generator at the same time. With less than 10 ms switchover time the PLI can be also used as UPS. Steca even claims that also large consumers such as AC motors can be operated without any problems. Maybe most important fact: The new wonder-inverter is a German-Chinese collaboration with the usual meticulous German quality control but more Chinese price tag.

Our thoughts: This sounds too good to be true! We will be testing the new Steca star ourselves and also attend a training at Steca’s headquarter in Memmingen to find out more.

Fronius: Backup from Austria

Fronius Österreich an Austrian inverter manufacturer celebrated its 25 years anniversary at Intersolar. They displayed a 3-phase backup inverter. The so called Fronius Power Package comes with a Lithium battery pack (LiFePO) and offers maximum independence and security by combining the public grid with the Lithium storage for UPS. As one of the first manufacturers Fronius introduced app-controlled commissioning and monitoring already 2 years ago. The Fronius backup inverter Symo Hybrid comes in the range of 3-5 kW.

Our thoughts: Fronius is part of the IBC product portfolio and we will definitely put it on our wish list for South Africa! A training is also currently being planned, looks like we have a new favourite.