Solar in USA or Germany

[slowbutsure]

Hi

I live in the Philippines and want to start a solar business. I do not want to use Chinese Inverters. The difficulty is finding either American or German inverters that won’t be too expensive. Does anyone know of a good supplier in either the US or Germany?

Thanks,

 

[crossy]

IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

 

[timselectric]

It's going to be hard to find anything that is not made in China.
Especially if you are including the parts inside something assembled in a preferred place.

 

[slowbutsure]

IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

The main reason is that there is tension between China and the Philippines and Filipinos would rather not buy their products.

 

[Hedges]

Midnight has made in USA products.
Also some made in China, for lower price point.

SMA is German, also made in USA and Canada.
Fronius is German.

 

[timselectric]

Midnight has made in USA products.
Also some made in China, for lower price point.

SMA is German, also made in USA and Canada.
Fronius is German.

All of their guts, too?

 

[koppted]

IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

I think The Philippines is 220v 60hz 1 phase for residential electricity.

 

[Hedges]

All of their guts, too?

Midnight said that some electronic components they import from China. And pay a higher percentage tariff on those than the tariff to import an entire inverter. Also buy the cardboard and Styrofoam packaging from there because much cheaper.

My older SMA equipment has some German semiconductors. Don't know the mix now.
It is pretty hard for anyone to be completely divorced from Chinese sources. Many big-name parts are made in China.
I've used some Wurth chokes, think they came with tariff for Chinese source, and we spotted who we think is the actual manufacturer in China.

At least having 100% of firmware, support, and quality control domestic puts Midnight in a fairly unique position.

 

[crossy]

I think The Philippines is 220v 60hz 1 phase for residential electricity.

Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

 

[timselectric]

Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

Pro tip.
It's one of the 3 phases. I believe that you are referring to 2 of the 3 legs.

 

[crossy]

Pro tip.
It's one of the 3 phases. I believe that you are referring to 2 of the 3 legs.

Yeah, I'm used to the UK system of single-phase being taken from the star point to one leg/phase (3-phase 4-wire).

 

[koppted]

Hi

I live in the Philippines and want to start a solar business. I do not want to use Chinese Inverters. The difficulty is finding either American or German inverters that won’t be too expensive. Does anyone know of a good supplier in either the US or Germany?

Thanks,

Schneider makes a Single phase 230v XW Pro that might work in your country.

 

[timselectric]

Yeah, I'm used to the UK system of single-phase being taken from the star point to one leg/phase (3-phase 4-wire).

It doesn't matter if it's star or delta. One leg and neutral, or two legs. Two wires gives you single phase. And three will either give you 3-phase or split-phase.
And yes, split-phase (or the exact same thing) is available in the UK. Two legs and a common neutral is the exact same thing. We just do it at a lower voltage in North America.
Here, it's 120v/ 240v (or 120v/ 208v if from 3-phase)
There, it's 230v/ 400v. But as far as I know, you all don't use 400v single phase for anything.

Edit: I should clarify this a little bit.
In a 3-phase Wye (star) system. Two legs (or wires) are connected through 2 of the 3 phases. But all power used is single phase. (Hopefully, that makes sense)

 

[Quattrohead]

Tim you are kind of correct without knowing it about split phase in the UK, it is used on building sites via center tapped to ground transformers to reduce the risk of lethal electric shocks.

UK Building Site 120V Equipment - ECN Electrical Forums

www.electrical-contractor.net

 

[Quattrohead]

Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

Could you possibly explain the system better to us, I'm particularly curious about how the ground gets involved because the way I'm currently understanding it, is the whole 220v is floating up in the air with no reference to ground whatsoever. That sounds like you can get fatal shocks off of either wire even if a device is turned off.

 

[timselectric]

Tim you are kind of correct without knowing it about split phase in the UK, it is used on building sites via center tapped to ground transformers to reduce the risk of lethal electric shocks.

UK Building Site 120V Equipment - ECN Electrical Forums

www.electrical-contractor.net

Oh yeah.
I do remember reading about this a while back.

 

[NC_hydro]

Victron is also an option, Netherlands design with builds now happening in India I believe.

 

[timselectric]

Could you possibly explain the system better to us, I'm particularly curious about how the ground gets involved because the way I'm currently understanding it, is the whole 220v is floating up in the air with no reference to ground whatsoever. That sounds like you can get fatal shocks off of either wire even if a device is turned off.

It's not floating. There's still a N/G bond (provided by the utility company). While the neutral is not provided to the home, the ground is.

 

[Quattrohead]

It's not floating. There's still a N/G bond (provided by the utility company). While the neutral is not provided to the home, the ground is.

That is putting a lot of trust on...well you know, dare I say 3rd world country

 

[timselectric]

That is putting a lot of trust on...well you know, dare I say 3rd world country

The UK Grid is pretty well safety regulated.
But other places , not so much.

 

[wattmatters]

Fronius is German.

Fronius is Austrian, not German but they do also manufacture in Germany. High quality PV inverters worth considering. They are already being used in the Philippines.

SMA is German but they have manufacturing in both Germany and China. Also already being used in the Philippines.

As for US, Enphase is the primary option which springs to mind. Again they are also used in the Philippines.

 

[Hedges]

Does SMA at this time have any manufacturing in China?

They tried it once, customers didn't like it.

 

[wattmatters]

Does SMA at this time have any manufacturing in China?

They tried it once, customers didn't like it.

Yeah I think you're right. They exited China a few years back. They did make 3-5 kW Sunny Boys there for a while. They had also bought a majority stake in Zeversolar but I think they've since sold that as well. They've announced plans to start manufacture in the USA.

SMA Announces Plans to Manufacture in the United States

SMA Solar Technology AG will expand manufacturing into the US with a projected start of production in 2025.

www.sma-america.com