A Big Year For SMA’s Big Inverters In Australia

2020 saw Germany’s SMA sign contracts for around 1.6 gigawatts of central inverter capacity for use in large-scale solar installations across Australia.

SMA claims to have captured market share of approximately 65 percent of the total 6.5 gigawatts of central inverter capacity committed locally by the end of 2020.

“Despite all the challenges we faced this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a highly successful year for SMA Australia,” said Michael Rutt, Managing Director.

The contracts signed during 2020 include supply of SMA central inverter products for 15 large-scale projects scattered throughout Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory

Among the bigger projects where SMA inverters will be used is the 162MW Columboola Solar Farm in Queensland. 39 Medium Voltage Power Stations – equipped with Sunny Central inverters, a medium voltage transformer and switchgear – and an SMA Power Plant Controller will be supplied for Columboola Solar Farm.

In May this year, SMA also scored a contract to supply the 460MW Western Downs Green Power Hub solar farm in Queensland with 90 SMA MVPS 6000-S-AU power stations. Here’s what one of the beasties looks like:

SMA says the Western Downs project is be one of the biggest the company has undertaken globally.

SMA inverters have been a popular choice for home solar and commercial PV installations in Australia for more than a decade (the company has had a local presence for over 20 years), but apparently it was only five years ago when the company supplied its first central inverters here.

According to SMA, more than 750,000 SMA inverters been installed across Australia, involved with producing more than 35% of all solar electricity in the country.

Coming Up – Esperance Power Project

Among the projects to have Sunny Central UP inverters delivered next year will be WA’s Horizon Power’s Esperance Power; a hybrid plant currently under construction featuring wind, solar, gas and battery storage that will slash the carbon footprint of power supply to Esperance by almost 50% per annum.

Two new wind turbines with a combined capacity of 9MW will generate 58% more electricity than the current six wind turbines located at nearby Ten Mile Lagoon and Nine Mile Beach combined. The solar power aspect will be a 4MW PV facility comprised of more than 8,900 solar panels  – the largest solar farm in Horizon Power’s portfolio to date.

The other elements of Esperance Power are a new gas-fired power station and a 5.5MW / 1.9 MWh battery system. When completed and operational, solar and wind power will provide up to 46% of Esperance’s electricity.

As well as a successful year in Australia, SMA looks set for a very good 2020 overall. In November the company reported it had sold 10.65 GW of inverter capacity between January and the end of September 2020, compared to 7.49 GW for the same period last year and representing a 34% increase.