Fronius – 30 Years Of Solar

There aren’t many companies around today that have been in the solar hardware game for as long as Austrian inverter manufacturer Fronius.

The company was founded by Günter Fronius in Austria in 1945, who started out with repairing radios and electrical equipment as a one-man show before moving into manufacturing battery equipment and welding transformers.

Fronius continued to grow in the years to follow before its solar division kicked off in 1992. The next few years were spent on research and development, which led to the launch of the Fronius Sunrise Midi grid connect inverter. This was a 1.5kW inverter weighing in at around 25kg.

The next major product line was the IG inverter range launched in 2001, which had its share of issues as did many inverters of that time. But Fronius really started turning heads in 2014 with its lightweight SnapINverter range, which in addition to being high quality inverters introduced a simple mounting system.

More recently, the Fronius GEN24 product line has received a lot of positive attention and the Primo GEN24 Plus released last year was Fronius’s first single-phase hybrid inverter.

“30 years of experience in the photovoltaics industry, not many people can claim the same. High quality, practiced sustainability, and strong partnerships have made us what we are,” said Fronius International GmbH’s Martin Hackl. “We look back proudly on the past 30 years and look toward the future with equal optimism.”

Fronius has done well to survive in the solar manufacturing game as it has been existing in a “race to the bottom” environment on pricing – and resisted joining it. With a solar inverter being the real workhorse of a solar power system and more likely to be the first component to fail, savvy solar buyers understand it’s worth spending extra bucks for quality gear.

Fronius An Australian Favourite

Fronius opened its Australian office in Melbourne in late 2010. It’s important Australian solar buyers consider if a company has a physical local presence, which can be helpful if support is required or a warranty claim needs to be made.

The company’s products continue to be well received in Australia, with Fronius inverter reviews from Australian owners here on SolarQuotes averaging 4.8 stars overall at the time of publishing, 4.8 stars over the last 6 months and 4.9 stars over 12 months.

Early last year SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock also asked installers in the SQ network what they believed were the best solar inverters – hardware that they would be happy to install on their own homes.

Fronius took out the high-end category, but also came in second on the budget category. It seemed many solar installers didn’t agree with the concept of a ” budget inverter” – that if money was tight, it was better to not be as fussy on the panel brand rather than compromise on the solar inverter.

Finn concurs, stating in his popular solar buyer’s guide that also lists inverter brands he recommends:

“So even if you’re on a limited budget, I’d recommend considering a mid-range or high-end solar inverter. I’m confident they’ll last longer than the cheapest ones.”

You can compare specifications and estimated pricing of various Fronius models available in Australia with other brands on SolarQuotes’ solar inverter comparison table.