Ground-breaking
move in SA solar PV industry
It’s not often that an organisation will
put its money where its mouth is and guarantee the continuous operation – to
spec - of its products for up to 10 years and longer. But this is exactly what
SMA is doing.
Rash? Reckless? Hardly. SMA is the
world-wide leader in solar inverter technology and dominates the market in
large-scale string inverter installations. Now, it has partnered with Powermode
to introduce a ground-breaking 99% uptime guarantee for users of its solar
energy installations in South Africa.
Under the banner of the Project Performance
Package (PPP), this innovative concept is targeted at the engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC) sector as well as specialist installers of
rooftop- and ground-mounted solar PV installations generating from 240
kilowatts (kW) to five megawatts (MW) of power.
The PPP bundles the proven and popular
Sunny Tripower STP inverter – a device which allows the use of commercial
appliances to be powered by solar energy – with a round-the-clock monitoring
service operated by SMA’s service desk.
It’s one of the more inventive and original
concepts to hit the market, especially as there’s a cash reimbursement for lost
solar PV production should that 99% uptime target not be met for any reason.
Significantly, the PPP programme brings
SMA’s hard-won expertise and on-going assurance directly to end-users. And, for
the first time, it allows local EPCs to compete directly on price, installation
quality and ‘bankability’ with their overseas counterparts, secure in the
knowledge that their efforts are underwritten by the might of SMA.
In order to take advantage of the offer,
solar PV installations will have to be commissioned and certified by SMA. This
will ensure a high quality installation and the reliability and dependability
of its solar power conversion.
The programme is available in packages with
contracted periods of either five or 10 years - extendable at the end of term.
More than 15 Australian engineers and research scientists from Flinders University's Nano Science and Technology Department were involved in the project's scientific and engineering development, which was a large endeavor and privately sponsored. As research and development into integrated water treatment, phosphorous treatment systems, and energy storage continues, the development team will remain active.
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