Meeting point for experts. Exhibit in front of the exhibition halls: A Solar-Tracker welcomes the visitors of the Intersolar 2005.

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1 Exhibit in front of the exhibition halls: A Solar-Tracker welcomes the visitors of the Intersolar Photos (4): Solar Promotion The exhibition halls of the fair in Freiburg were completely filled. Next year, exhibition hall 4 will provide some additional space. Meeting point for experts was the world s largest photovoltaics market last year and will also be the largest this year. Consequently, the country s largest solar trade show, the Intersolar, draws solar technology suppliers from all over the world into the quaint city of Freiburg. The Intersolar once again has expanded drastically, a fact that can mostly be attributed to photovoltaics. Since its premiere in the year 2000 the number of exhibitors has almost doubled and continues to grow even faster than the number of visitors (see table). Solar Promotion GmbH, which organises the trade show together with the Messe Freiburg, is quite happy about this trend. Their focus is not on attracting the general public as much as making the Intersolar a meeting point for experts. According to the organiser, about 80 % of the visitors are professionals. Year Gross area [m 2 ] 8,900 11,800 13,800 14,700 14,300 18,000 Leased area [m 2 ] 3,796 4,727 5,987 6,417 8,150 10,878 Exhibitors Visitors 11,505 13,018 11,098 11,926 15,384 19,580 Data from the six Intersolar exhibitions. The numbers for 2005 have not yet been verified by FKM. FKM: Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics, 68

2 Big crowds The number of inverter suppliers has nearly doubled over the last three years. The competition resulting from this increase is producing an amazing number of new products under 10 kw as this report about the Intersolar exhibition shows. The photovoltaics industry is very much preoccupied with itself. While module manufacturers and PV wholesalers are currently concerned about the topics of silicon and module shortages, the inverter manufacturers are facing an increasingly narrow market. The list of suppliers of on-grid devices under 10 kw already comprises approximately 30 companies. Almost half of those companies entered the market within the last three years, resulting in a difficult market situation. The suppliers are pulling out all the stops with their technical marketing to make their own products stand out against the competition. 69

3 Arguments now even include milliseconds of MPP tracking speed or particularly favourable DC nom windows. Interpretation gaps have been closed and the communication capabilities of the devices have been optimised. As a result of this the number of new inverter products at this year s Intersolar was incredible. Some of them are described in this article. New brands are setting examples We would first like to take a look at the four companies three German and one Italian that were not put off by the crowded inverter market, and which presented new brands this year in Freiburg: Abracadabra Solar-Fabrik AG used the old magic spell to market their new inverter, for which they had already aroused interest prior to the exhibition. Convert 6T is the name of this first three-phase feed, transformerless inverter. The grid operators will be pleased with this new product because the small string inverter with P ACmax = 5.5 kw feeds like a central inverter with a three-phase transformer, and is symmetrical on all three phases. That, however, was not the main concern of the developers at Kostal Industrie Elektrik GmbH, Lüdenscheid,.»We wanted to get rid of problematic components such as electrolytic capacitors and develop a durable product,«describes Kostal employee Dieter Röttger regarding the objectives of the development project. With a three-phase feed the grid can handle the power more evenly and the DC-link capacitors can be dimensioned much smaller.»we have reduced the aging components to a minimum,«says Röttger. The second advantage of this me-too product by the Kostal group, a well-known supplier of automotive and industrial electronics with 10,300 employees and a turnover of one thousand million worldwide, is that the three-phase circuit concept together with the DC intermediate circuit eliminates main frequency interference voltage at the generator field and the DC lines, i.e., the PV generator produces no electromagnetic pollution. The other features of the Convert 6T are also rather competitive: It has three MPP trackers, weighs in at only 17 kg and has a European efficiency of 95.5 %. The device will be available in in September. Solarworld AG from Bonn,, which was previously only a reseller of SMA products, introduced their own inverter series at the Intersolar under the brand name Sunplug.»We are now big enough to add a second string to our bow in addition to our module manufacture,«explains Solarworld product manager V o l k e r Hense. They Newcomer in plug connector manufacture: At Intersolar the company Wieland Electric GmbH, Ulm (), demonstrated their AC plug connector system Gesis, which has been available since January and is already in use by several inverter manufacturers. Dreams of the future behind glass: The XS 6500 outdoor series by Mastervolt will be available early next year. Mix concept for central inverters: The new IG series with up to 15 power racks was the main attraction of the Fronius stand. Grid-friendly topology: The new Convert 6T by Solar- Fabrik feeds symmetrically with three phases. Photos (8): Bärbel Epp will also continue selling SMA products. It will be the customer s decision, says Hense. Their production partner is the Danish OEM producer Powerlynx AS, a spin-off of the Danfoss group, a major company with 18,000 employees worldwide, 54 production sites and a net turnover of 2.2 billion. Powerlynx was founded in October 2002 and has so far been able to acquire three good customers for their OEM business: The Japanese electronics corporation Kyocera, the inverter manufacturer Solarstocc (Durlach, ) and now Solarworld. The company situated in Bonn offers two new types of inverters, the SPI for indoors and the SPO for outdoors. Kyocera s indoor devices are called KC 1.8i, KC 3.6i and KC 5.4i. The Solarstocc brand name is Powerstocc and they are available for indoor and outdoor operation in six performance classes each. The special feature of the Powerlynx devices is the optional parallel or master-slave mode. Depending on the system configuration, the customer can connect different strings to the DC inputs and can lead them through the device separately. It is also possible, however, to connect the inputs in parallel via jumpers and thereby create an internal master-slave circuit. Depending on the power generated by each power rack, the 70

4 Provider Series/product Number of devices System of protection Type of inverter Type of transformer max. AC power [kw] European efficiency [%] Aixcon Elektrotechnik GmbH PT 6000 / PT IP 21 string without 5.3 / / 94.5 Aixcon MTC 4-12 / MTC 8-24, MTC IP 21 central power rack without transformer 10.6 / 21.2 / Dorfmüller SMI 1200/90 1 IP 65 string low frequency Elettronica Santerno Sunway M XR 6 IP 65 string low frequency 2.2 to to 94 Fronius International GmbH IG 400 / IG IP 54 central high frequency 32 / / 93.5 G&H Elektronik GmbH Power-Trap SB IP 20 string high frequency 3 93 Ingeteam S.A Ingecon Sun 3,3 /3,3 TL 2 IP 54 string low frequency / without 3.7 > 93 / > 95 Kaco Powador 2500xi to 5000xi 5 IP 54 string without 2.9 to to 94.8 Kaco Gerätetechnik GmbH Powador IP 44 central without Magnetek PVI-6000-outd 1 IP 65 string without 6 95 Mastervolt Sunmaster XS to 5 IP 65 string high frequency Oelmaier PAC 1-2 to PAC IP 54 string without 2.8 / 4.2 / 5.6 / (PAC 1-5) Pairan Elektronik GmbH Pesos PVI 5000 / 5000 T 2 IP 65 string without / with transformer 5 95 / n/a Philips Lighting B.V. / Steca GmbH Evo 1500 / 1600 / IP 65 string high frequency 1.5 / 1.6 / 2 93 Phönixtec/Suntension Sunville 1500 / 2800 / IP 43 string without 1.65 / 3 / 5.1 > 93 / 94 / 94.5 SMA SMC 8000TL 1 IP 65 mini central without SMA SB 5000TL HC 1 IP 65 multi-string without SMA SB IP 54 string low frequency Solar-Fabrik Convert 6T 1 IP 55 string without Solarstocc PS 2000 HV to 6000 HV 5 IP 21 string high frequency 1.8 to to 93.2 Solarstocc PS 1200 to IP 54 / IP 65 string high frequency to to 93.2 Solarworld 4 SPI 1500 / 3000 / IP 21 string high frequency 1.8 / 3.6 / / 93.3 / 93.4 Solarworld 4 SPO 1500 / 3000 / IP 54 string high frequency 1.8 / 3.6 / / 93.3 / 93.4 Solutronic GmbH Solplus 30 / 50 2 IP 21 / IP 54 string without 3.1 / / 97.1 Sputnik Engineering AG Solarmax 2000 C to 6000 C 4 IP 54 string without 2 to to 97 Sputnik Solarmax 300C 1 IP 20 central low frequency Sunways NT 5000 / IP 54 string without 4.2 / SB 3800U has been available in the USA since July The device series is suitable as high-voltage series for modules with 5 inch cells and as medium voltage series for modules with 6 inch cells. 3 The outdoor types PS 1200 to PS 4000 will be available in September PS 5000 and PS 6000 have been available since June Table 1: New inverters in 2005 Source: Manufacturer 72

5 Market introduction Manufacture Internet : April 2005 : summer 2005 own production in Stolberg, : August 2005 Italy: November 2005; Spain,, France, Greece and India: 2006 and Austria: summer 2005 International markets, except for USA and Australia: summer 2005 and Austria: April 2005 Spain: February 2005 : July 2005 : autumn 2005, Spain, USA: 2006 / Netherlands: early 2006 Theben AG, Haigerloch, own production in Italy own production in Austria own production in Neuburg, own production in Navarra, Spain own production in Neckarsulm, own production near Florence, Italy own production in Groenlo, Netherlands, and in Poland : summer 2005 own production with suppliers / Spain: October 2005, Italy and Portugal: 2006 : January 2005 / May 2005 / May 2005 own production in Göttingen,, and at partner facilities so far internally at Philips, after takeover at Steca in Memmingen, : summer 2005 own production in Taiwan : end of 2005; rest of the world, except for USA and Spain: March 2006 : July 2005; rest of the world, except for USA and Spain: August 2005 : August 2005; rest of the world, except for USA: October 2005, Switzerland, Austria, France: September 2005 Italy, Spain, USA: 2006 : February 2005 Spain: early 2006 : summer Spain: early 2006 : June 2005 Spain: September 2005, USA: 2006 : August 2005, Spain: September 2005, USA: 2006 : April 2005, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Benelux, Portugal, Malaysia: summer 2005 : summer 2005 : May 2005 / September Identical with Kyocera s KC series and Solarstocc s Powerstocc series own production in Niestetal, OEM manufacturer Kostal Industrie Elektrik GmbH, Lüdenscheid, OEM manufacturer Powerlynx, Denmark OEM manufacturer Powerlynx, Denmark production at Aspro GmbH in Großbettlingen, own production in Biel, Switzerland supplier who manufactures in and Hungary

6 Newcomer from Italy: Vanes Vitali (left), sales manager, and Gabriele Zamarini, son of the company founder, are proud of the distinctive Elettronica Santerno product design. Trademark red: The Sunnyboy 8000TL by SMA, sets new milestones in terms of efficiency and is also difficult to overlook. In the background Wolfgang Weber (left), sales director communication & control, explains the extensive communication capabilities of the SMA inverters. Outdoor version of the Aurora PVI 6000: In the background, Gerd Gremes (left) is talking to two customers. Gremes Distribution in Tyrol, Austria, is the European representative for Magnetek. control in the morning determines which one has the least hours of operation and makes this particular one the»master for the day«.»we have decided in favour of the master-slave circuit as the standard for our outdoor devices, because we estimate an additional yield of 1 to 1.5 %,«says Hense. As of autumn, the Sunplug device will also be sold by the Solarworld sales team in Madrid, and next year by their branch office in California. The Powerstocc devices use string operation as their standard setting, in which the installer can access a password protected area to switch it over to power mode, i.e. master-slave circuit. Solarstocc attaches great value to their devices communication capabilities and provides the installer with different PC programmes for yield statements, dimensioning and function control. Oelmaier Industrieelektronik GmbH is an unknown newcomer to the inverter market. In Freiburg the company from Ochenhausen,, presented their products at the stand of Baden-Württemberg.»We have 15 years of experience in the field of power electronics, as well as in the OEM inverter business,«says commercial manager Joachim Koch. The first series product, the PAC 1-5, comes without a transformer or booster, but does come with an MPP tracker and single-phase grid feed and weighs 25 kg. According to the manufacturer the device has been ready for series-production since July and will be distributed by wholesalers. Exploratory talks with sales partners had not been completed at the time of the copy deadline. According to Koch, a future generation PAC 3 with a three-phase feed will follow. For the first time outside of Italy, Elettronica Santerno, located near Bologna, presented their products at the Intersolar. They have 16 years of experience with inverters and a 33-page product catalogue featuring a wide product range for on-grid and stand-alone applications from 2 to 730 kw. Brand new, with a striking sun design, is the new Sunway M XR series. It is a feedin device with MPP trackers and a low-frequency transformer, available in six versions with a maximum AC output of 2.2 to 6.6 kw. The Italian company develops and produces frequency converter and electric motors for industry and public services worldwide and uses an international sales network of 40 wholesalers who cover 95 % of all developed nations. Now, sales manager Vanes Vitali is looking for new sales partners in for the distribution of inverters. More new devices in brief The market leader SMA featured the device with the highest efficiency, the»mini central«inverter 8000TL with a maximum efficiency of 98 %.»With our new bridge circuit we have managed to minimise the switching losses of the IGBT transistor components«, says divisional director for solar technology Marko Werner. The HS technology patented by SMA and for the first time used in a series device, uses a fifth switch in the full bridge. That is all Werner would like to say, as he would rather leave it up to the industry to figure out the topology. One thing is certain: Due to the minimised losses, the systems require less cooling and have a longer life. SMA guarantees a nominal rating for the Sunny Boy 3800 of up to 40 C. The Opticool cooling system is responsible for this capability. All of the heat-intensive components are installed within the airflow of a temperature-controlled, quiet ventilator. Only the sensitive electronics are located in an IP 65 protected housing. Good cooling is important, especially in the case of high currents. This is the case when solar cells of 6 or more are used. Thanks to the extra large cooling elements, the SB 3300TL and the SB 5000TL HC by SMA are suited for 6 and 6 + cells.»hc«stands for»high current«and indicates that this transformerless inverter has been designed for input currents of up to 11 A. The new C series of the Swiss manufacturer Sputnik also features an improved cooling system and is thus also suitable for operation with 6 cells. Sputnik has placed the power inductor, which produces a great part of the heat, on the back of the device. In combination with an additional internal air recirculation system the interior temperature decreases by approx. 20 C. That is why the Solarmax 600 C can even handle 8 cells. In addition, all of the electrical connections now plug in 74

7 Detailed view of the Powador 5000xi: Kaco sales manager Fabian Dörner (white shirt) explains to his customers the advantages of three-phase monitoring. on the outside of the device to make handling easier. The second largest manufacturer on the German market, Kaco Gerätetechnik GmbH from Neckarsulm, presented the result of their insistent refusal to use ENS for grid monitoring.»from the very beginning we focused on three-phase monitoring because we are unconvinced of ENS,«explains technical director Matthias Haag and proudly presents the EU conformity declaration for the new Powador xi series, which replaces the brand name of Blue Planet. The devices feed on one phase and, in parallel, monitor the other two phases by measuring the voltage and the frequency. Kaco thus already fulfils the new safety standard VCE of May 2005, which still specifies islanding detection. Whether this is performed by way of measuring the impedance change or the Ferquec shift, by evaluating the harmonics or by means of three-phase grid monitoring, it is now up to the manufacturer.»our customers can rest assured that their systems will not be shut off unnecessarily because their grid monitoring is too sensitive,«emphasises Haag. The five single-stage, transformerless Powador xi series inverters have been on the market since July in a new housing with front flap and mounting plate. Dorfmüller Solaranlagen GmbH has crossed the 1 kw line. The new inverter DMI 1200/90 has a maximum AC output of 1.26 kw and an MPP voltage range of 68 to 120 V.»Due to the higher efficiency of the Kyocera modules KC-190GJT-2 we had to develop a new device with a larger voltage window,«explains Michael Pieper from the sales office south. 2 x 3 modules can be connected to the device. The two strings are connected in parallel. Dorfmüller has been selling inverters for more than 15 years; the manufacturer of their systems is Theben AG in Haigerloch,. After the USA and Spain, Xantrex Technology Inc. now also want to sell their new string inverters in. The flat devices with a high power density feature an MPPT, single-phase feed and ENS grid monitoring. The devices of this Canadian manufacturer are sold in Europe via a 5-year old subsidiary in Barcelona. In 2004 the company had revenue of US $143 million, one quarter of it being made with inverters. The string systems are manufactured in Beijing, China, the central inverters at the two US facilities in Livermoor (California) and Arlington (Washington). At the Intersolar, the Dutch Philips Corporation introduced the new devices of their Evo series. Just a few weeks later, Europe s largest electronics company announced their intention to sell their inverter business.»this was implemented for business reasons and to allow us to focus on our lighting activities as the world s leading lighting company,«explains company spokesman Robert Hall. Power [% of rated power] DC Voltage [V] In mid July, Philips and the off-grid system specialist Steca GmbH situated in Memmingen,, signed a letter of intent. According to the agreement, the entire product stewardship, the development and the manufacturing of the grid-coupled Philips inverters will go to Steca.»We will offer the smaller devices form of 300 to 500 W as well as the 2 to 6 kw systems under our own brand name and will further expand the grid-coupled market segment,«explains Michael Müller from Steca regarding their strategic reorientation. In the future, the market leader for charge regulators would like to manufacture the inverters in Memmingen. The electronics company will sell the inverters in as well as internationally and would like to use their excellent international connections established during their long and intensive off-grid activities. Inverter benchmarking Efficiency in dependence of the DC input voltage for DC input voltage for optimal dimensioning A large DC input voltage range means a large amount of flexibility of system dimensioning for the installer. This is of great advantage and thus a lot of the new products feature an extended MPP voltage range, e.g. 150 to 850 V for the Convert 6T by Solar-Fabrik, 125 to 750 V for the SB 3300 TL by SMA, 350 to 750 V for the NT by Sunways or 90 to 580 V for the PVI outd by Magnetek. But for the planning of optimally dimensioned PV systems, the installer must know that The Californian Magnetek, which started producing inverters in Italy last year, presented their new outdoor system PVI-6000, which will be available in in early 2006, at the ISH. Just like the little brothers of the same series, it will, in the long run, also be sold in the USA and Spain. The PVI-6000 is a dual-stage inverter, which optimises the voltage for the inverter by means of a DC-DC booster. This way the capacitors can be smaller and the MPPT will be faster. The specialists for power electronics from Italy had this advantage verified by an independent test institute from Vienna, Austria. The Arsenal Research Institute tested the Aurora 3600 and compared it with devices from four other manufacturers. The results showed that the MPP algorithm of the Aurora 3600 only needed 1.4 seconds to find the new MPP point after a change in solar radiation. One competitor reached 1.3 seconds, and a third one had a stabilisation time of up

8 Power [% of rated power] DC Voltage [V] Power [% of rated power] DC Voltage [V] different inverter topologies measured by Arsenal Research Institute in Vienna, Austria P H O T O V O L T A I C S efficiency depends on the DC input voltage (see illustrations). In the case of transformerless devices, the maximum efficiency is in the higher voltage range, in the case of transformer devices it tends to be in the lower range. The illustrations show that incorrect dimensioning causes efficiency losses of several percent.»we address this issue in our training seminars, but do not provide any recommendations in out data sheets,«explains Marco Werner, head of solar technology at SMA. Magnetek on the other hand states a to 129 seconds. One device completely failed with 750 seconds and the testers were unable to determine whether this was normal, but most likely it was not. The data for some of the new products presented at the Intersolar showed a tendency of less than 10 seconds. The new Sunways NT looks for a new MPP every 5 voltage range of»360 V nominal«in their data sheet to indicate that the best performance is reached in the middle of the DC window. One of the largest DC input ranges is provided by the new Convert 6T by Solar-Fabrik. The solar module manufacturer from Freiburg has taken precautions. The new dimensioning programme contains efficiency characteristics to show the user the current efficiency using any system configuration. This minimises efficiency losses due to incorrect planning. seconds, explains sales engineer Adrian Maurer, during a lecture at the exhibition s innovation exchange. For the Convert 6T the developers provided an MPP speed of less than one second and also pointed out that the results largely depend on the measuring method. Bärbel Epp Top efficiency: For the transformerless Solplus 50 (P ACmax = 5.1 kw) the supplier Solutronic states a European efficiency of 97.1 %.... the safe way from the inverter to the network IP for applications outside or in wet and damp rooms bis 25 A high load capacities bis 6,0 mm 2 low voltage loss Easy handling and fast installation on site simply plug+play g esi s A C SOLA R Wieland Electric GmbH Brennerstraße D Bamberg Phone +49 (951)