Inverter

Fronius was founded by Günter Fronius in Austria in the 1940s. Fronius is an international company with a 75-year history in the manufacture of welding equipment and nearly three decades of experience with solar inverters and other devices for monitoring and controlling energy, including battery chargers. Fronius inverters are suitable for both residential solar and commercial solar projects.

Sungrow was founded in China in 1997 by Professor Cao Renxian from Hefei University of Technology, China. Sungrow solar inverters are highly reliable and backed by excellent tech support and warranties.

Sungrow hybrid inverters when matched with the noteworthy Sungrow batteries are an excellent way to get home storage for thousands of dollars less than another costly brand.

Founded in March 2006 in California, United States by Raghu Belur and Martin Fornage, Enphase Energy became the first microinverter manufacturer globally. 

Enphase microinverters work on a per-panel level, differently compared to a single-string inverter working with multiple solar panels. Enphase microinverters offer many advantages over string inverters, such as redundancy, flexible system design, panel-level monitoring and enhanced safety.

Established in 2006, Israel-headquartered SolarEdge Technologies offers DC-optimised inverter solutions (Intelligent Inverter Systems) to maximise power generation at the individual panel level that changed the way power is harvested and managed in photovoltaic (PV) systems among all inverter brands. SolarEdge also offers Solar PV Modules (named “Smart Modules”) with SolarEdge Optimisers integrated, DC Optimisers and Battery Storage Systems.

SolarEdge Optimisers are DC-to-DC converters that work together to convey the ideal string voltage to the inverter for maximum power.

GoodWe, formally known as Jiangsu GoodWePower Supply Technology Co Ltd, was established in 2010. GoodWe is one of the better budget inverter brands available in the market. GoodWe offers residential and commercial inverters and energy storage systems. GoodWe stands out as one of the few reliable and cost-effective inverter brands and produces one of the most extensive ranges of solar inverters to suit virtually every application in the solar market.

Ginlong Technologies Co Ltd, trading as Solis, was established in 2005. Though Solis is still one of the cheaper solar inverters made, it is no longer the cheapest brand. The Solis solar inverter is probably the safest bet compared to what else sits at its price point.

Founded in 2011, Shenzhen Growatt New Energy Technology Co Ltd (simply known as Growatt) is one of the cost-effective manufacturers of solar inverters. Growatt’s product range includes grid-connected inverters, hybrid inverters, and energy storage systems that are compatible with a wide range of solar modules. Their inverters are known for their high efficiency, reliability, and ease of installation, making them a popular choice among solar installers and customers around the world.

Huawei is known as a leader in communication and mobile technology, but it’s not well–known that Huawei has a strong foothold in the global PV market. With decades of experience in large-scale commercial and utility solar, Huawei entered the residential solar market in 2018 with an efficient, lightweight hybrid solar inverter offering a striking range of features at a competitive price. Later Huawei released the second-generation residential hybrid inverters, a compact optimiser, a range of three-phase hybrid and large commercial inverters, and an energy storage system.

Located in Italy, Fimer S.p.A was founded in 1942 by Arturo Sottocorno, as a welding equipment manufacturer. It has been producing inverters for decades but recently entered the home and small commercial market with its acquisition of ABB’s solar inverter business in early 2020.

With the FIMER takeover and positive feedback on the new range of UNO-TL and UNO-TL-DM-PLUS inverters, FIMER will likely maintain a strong market position going forward. They are a little bit cheaper compared to Fronius, but more expensive than Sungrow. 

Founded in 2010, and headquartered in Hangzhou, China, SolaX Power has become a globally recognised solar inverter company, operating in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia and the USA. SolaX Power is proud to be affiliated with Zhejiang University, one of the leading research universities in China and home to the only national silicon material laboratories in China.

Manufactured in China, SolaX inverters are generally cheaper than European-manufactured competitors. Solax offers residential and commercial inverters, battery storage solutions and EV chargers.