There is no doubt that 2018 has been a huge year for solar PV, with number of significant achievements and milestones indented up through the past years, including the 2 million solar-powered households. The number of homes installing their own solar PV systems is drastically increasing year by year as they are trusting more clean energy to provide them electricity. And yet another challenge faced by solar industry are the customers who are still skeptical in buying solar battery storage. Many are still convinced that solar batteries are unnecessary and will only add up to the cost of a PV system. Despite of the public’s partial trust on solar batteries, different labor governments are ready to dedicate some funds in order to help Australian communities to be totally independent from the grid. In fact, 2018 proved that the government is serious about their positive actions toward solar batteries. As a review, below are some of the battery incentive programs that are ready and soon to be ready in subsidizing the cost of battery storage in different states.
(Source: SwitchDin, A roundup of existing & proposed battery incentive programs in Australia.)
2019 will be the year to find out if there will be bigger incentive programs for Australia or similar home battery storage plans from other state governments.
Nevertheless, we can be sure that even without the following loan schemes, solar batteries are something worth considering when installing a Solar PV system in your home.
Reduces Electric Bills
One of the best benefits of having solar batteries is the ability to practically reduce your solar bill to a lower amount. Due to its capability to store excess energy produced by solar panels, it is possible to utilise this saved energy in powering a whole household all day. As a result, you won’t be needing electricity anymore from the grid and become totally independent from it depending on the size capacity of your battery storage. As we all know, and have experience the cost of electricity is going up every year, and as such installing a home battery something to seriously consider. According to finder.com.au, the price of electricity increased by 3% from 2017 to 2018. Imagine the total amount of money that you can save in a long run if you have a backup system for your PV system without relying from the grid at all the times – simply providing another level of power security for your home.
Acts as Backup System
No matter how efficient you think your PV system is, it is still smart to have a backup system for your home. For example, when times that your solar panels for whatever reason don’t generate enough electricity for your home, your system gets energy from the grid to compensate for the shortage. In essence, you will be paying for this energy as if you don’t have solar panels that are supposedly reducing the cost. But if you have battery support system, you can actually sell back to the grid the stored energy and secure a discounted electric bill. Sound practical, right? Another practical example of the importance of backup system is when we experience instability of power sources in some areas. Solar battery storage system helps to stabilize the flow of electricity without you worrying for a power interruption. The PV system will automatically pulls energy from the batteries giving you a full control over electricity. Thus, battery systems allow your home to be more flexible when it comes to energy consumption.
No Noise Pollution
Whilst many homes have a generator these days, remember the days when you used a generator to power your home during blackouts? Noisy, isn’t it? This won’t be the case with solar battery system. We all know that battery storage don’t create noise pollution that surely bothers your neighborhood. Batteries are efficiently made to power a home without the cost of the environment or even your neighbor’s peace of mind. Installing a battery is so easy with the help of a certified solar installer. They can assure you to experience solar energy with ease. Solar battery systems also allow homes to consume fewer energy resources in the years to come. This is an important consideration for those who want to reduce pollution and use clean energy as an alternative power source.
These three key benefits are only few of the obvious advantages of using a solar battery system for a home. In actuality, installing a backup system creates a lot of benefits for the users as time goes by. The longer you use a solar battery system, the bigger the savings it will be. If you are planning to install your PV system soon, never doubt to have a solar battery storage as a backup plan so you can experience grid-free solar PV system.
Energy Stuff provides a full range of new smart solar systems which can include battery ready inverters or systems with integrated battery storage. All our systems come with smart energy management to provide real time monitoring and energy efficiencies. Finance can be arranged for as little as $2.96 a day. For further information call 1300 656 205 or go to our website at
Main Image: SolarEdge Technologies impressive revenue and shipment figures were out of step with its public listed rivals in 2018. Image: SolarEdge
A personal perspective on why a solar company could take on its rivals and thrive in a year full of disruptions to the industry but report record results and revenue growth that is unlikely to be topped by any other PV manufacturer in 2018.
We all know about the Top 10 rankings, such as PV Tech’s annual solar cell and module supplier lists, while other rankings apply covering EPC’s, inverter suppliers et al. All these help understand the ‘real’ leaders in their fields of expertise by taking some of the hype out of these companies’ claims. They should also identify those that continue to dominate as well as highlight up and coming competitors through to those struggling to keep market share.
Understandably, such ranking lists prove really popular but a question often raised in my line of work from outsiders to insiders, from residential installers to executives at large corporations in the solar industry, often revolves around what technology or what company(s) have impressed me, whether that’s been long-term or short-term. Of course, the question needs responding to and reasons given.
A reasonably long flight late last year (one of the more uncomfortable), got me thinking about why I had agreed to that particular excursion in the first place, and then I realised it was because the company in question had really impressed me in 2018.
There are lots of reasons that will come apparent, but the old grey matter questioned the validity, especially when some of the other candidates would easily come into the fore.
A good example (don’t worry I will not be giving a Top 10 list) would be LONGi Group, which has been instrumental in the upstream solar industry kick-starting and leading the transition away from multicrystalline wafers to monocrystalline. Add-on becoming a member of the SMSL as well and this company ticks all the boxes in recent years.
Leading SMSL, JinkoSolar also meets the criteria on a successful business model that has proved ‘asset-lite’ viable when most companies were going ‘fully-integrated’ and has set annual module shipment records that are now in the 10GW range. Not bad for a company I remember back in 2010 having a grand total of 150MW of module capacity.
Finally, not considering the likes of First Solar, which has dominated the thin-film sector for 10-plus years and was once the leading module manufacturer in the world, would be foolish. Indeed, its ongoing transition to its Series 6 large-area CdTe modules remains an impressive sight to watch, albeit still a great work in progress.
Bucking the trend
Many may be surprised that of all the companies that impressed the most in 2018, the winner was not a polysilicon, wafer, cell or module manufacturer. I surprised myself with that realisation.
It all started a few years ago when the PV inverter market became increasingly competitive and technology shifts were starting to shake-up market rankings.
Huawei had shot to number one in the PV inverter market rankings with its string technology breaking the central inverter grip on the utility-scale market and long-standing market leader, SMA Solar was continuing to lose market share, enabling Sungrow to surpass the company on a revenue basis for the first time in 2017.
However, another inverter manufacturer, SolarEdge Technologies really started to gain new business momentum in 2017, although well below the horizon in comparison to Sungrow and SMA Solar, but momentum continued to build each quarter.
Spin forward to 2018 and the impressive revenue and shipment figures were out of step with its public listed rivals. In a turbulent year for SMA Solar and Sungrow, while Enphase was still getting its act back in order after several years of restructuring and senior management changes, SolarEdge became the most exciting player in the inverter space to watch.
By the third quarter of 2018, SolarEdge had continued to post record revenue and product shipments, also surpassing the 1GW of quarterly inverter shipments milestone, for the first time.
PV Tech had been covering SolarEdge well before its NASDAQ IPO in March 2015, yet clearly, 2018 had been a landmark year for the company. It should be noted that despite China being the largest end-market, SolarEdge is also approaching revenue levels closer to Sungrow, a market dominated by the likes of Sungrow and Huawei.
SolarEdge isn’t a player in China, which has proved highly beneficial as SMA Solar’s foray ended recently and could have been behind the exit of its CEO, Pierre-Pascal Urbon, who suddenly stepped down from his executive role in October 2018 and planned to leave the company altogether at the end of December.
Having also surprised on news it had sunk to a €67 million loss in 2018 and revenue right at the low-end of guidance, SMA Solar is more than likely to be passed by SolarEdge on a revenue basis in 2018.
In the unfolding SMA Solar saga, despite highlighting challenging business environments in China and the US, SMA Solar would seem to have been having other problems than simply geographical.
Indeed, one of the long-standing touted strengths of the company came from it having the broadest geographical market footprint, something the likes of JinkoSolar have benefited from successfully in the module market.
Away from the hustle and bustle of trade shows near the end of the year, PV Tech had the opportunity catch-up with SolarEdge and get their perspective of why 2018 had been one of such success.
However, when we stay away from the hustle and bustle of trade shows, meeting members of the SolarEdge team at their headquarters, is not anything less than high activity. The company has grown its headcount massively in the past few years and now populates a group of office blocks that house all the usual HQ operations as well as R&D and new project/product development operations and long-term product testing.
Indeed, its R&D organization had a headcount of 367 employees in 2017, compared with 258 at the end of 2016. Total full-time employees in 2016 were 718, compared to 1,007 at the end of 2017. This had increased to 1,737 employees in 2018 (Latest investor presentation February 2019) with roughly 60% of these to be found in and around the headquarters.
Putting all that into perspective, at the time of SolarEdge’s 2015 IPO, it had 440 full-time employees, including 188 in R&D.
As always, it is great to get the opportunity to visit product development operations and testing facilities, even if you really cannot reveal much of what you were shown. A guided tour though was illuminating on several fronts, not least the number of engineers hard at work in packed rooms on many floors at the headquarters, while remodelling work areas and the general bustle never stopped.
It was also clear that the pace of new product development was not slowing down, while testing and evaluation was busting at the seams. Hijacking a conference room as we didn’t know when a team of engineers were expected to take over the space, PV Tech sat down with one of the founders of SolarEdge, Lior Handelsman who is the VP of Marketing & Product Strategy.
Therefore it was a case of getting some of the intriguing questions answered first, not least what in Lior’s view was behind the success of the company and failures of a key rival in 2018.
“In some respects, when looking back, it is unsustainable to think a company can retain an 80% market share but there are some important lessons for all of us, which is having a constant focus on new technologies and technology patterns and retaining a customer orientation from small to large,” noted Handelsman. “In such a competitive market the little things also matter but everyone has recently had supply issues, due to the shortage of key components such as semiconductors and capacitors and everyone is constantly trying to limit the impact on customers.”
Handelsman was alluding to what has been a significant shift in demand for critical components such as capacitors, not only the growth in demand for the solar industry but really across the automotive industry, including electric vehicles’ insatiable demand, because electronics, notably power electronics, make up an increasing percentage of the BOM (Balance of Materials).
“We are all having to deal with the component issues as these manufacturers were only geared-up for single digit demand growth and adding new capacity is a multi-year capex cycle that is billions of [US$] dollars as they need to now double production,” noted Handelsman.
Adding to the challenges of dealing with industry-wide supply issues, SolarEdge was forced to increase product pricing in one of its key markets, due to the US trade war with China, which underlines that it was not just simply a year of market growth and normal business execution behind the milestone year for the company.
Diversification
It would be understandable then that SolarEdge would have focused on consolidating its position in 2018, instead it went to the next phase of potential growth with the acquisition of South Korean-headquartered Kokam, a small-scale manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells, batteries and energy storage solutions.
“We want to become a more diversified company and continue to have strong growth in the future,” noted Handelsman. “This was also the reason behind the acquisition of Gamatronic Electronic Industries for entry into the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) market. We want to grow that business organically. So it’s a case of diversification into related technology markets that we can leverage, as well as diversification outside solar such as Kokam.”
In early 2019, SolarEdge announced the acquisition of Italian-headquartered S.M.R.E Spa, which provides integrated powertrain technology and electronics for electric vehicles, reiterating SolarEdge’s diversification strategy into the connected sectors but also outside the solar industry.
This may include both new products and acquisitions in the field of energy networks in the future where cybersecurity and network interoperability are critical factors across an energy market dominated by renewable sources.
However, not only are there recent acquisitions of manufacturing-based companies but SolarEdge is reinforcing its inverter product offerings with more manufacturing control over its OEM supplier base.
According to Handelsman, SolarEdge is responsible for the automated production lines at the OEMs and expanding what he described as “self-manufacturing” as the company is building up its own in-house manufacturing capabilities.
A big takeaway is that SolarEdge is embarking on its next wave of business growth and the challenge will be coming up with a short but new (accurate) description of the company, as labelling SolarEdge as just a ‘major PV inverter supplier,’ will not cut it in the near future.
Mark Osborne has nearly three decades of experience in covering both the semiconductor and photovoltaics manufacturing industries. In his current roles as senior news editor for PV Tech and sister technical journal, Photovoltaics International, Mark covers the key developments in the PV industry on a global level and continues to provide insight and analysis via his editor’s blog.
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems so call us if we can be of support 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au
CEO and founder of electric vehicle startup Rivian, RJ Scaringe, has said that he considers Australia is an important market for his EV company, firming up reports of the company’s intention to create a right-hand drive version of its rugged all-electric SUV, the R1S, and the R1T ute.
The comment, which was made on Twitter in response to a query from Tim Washington, the CEO of Australian-Based EV charging company Jet Charge, follows news that internet giant Amazon is investing $US700 million ($A980 million) in the EV startup.
As Washington points out, Australia is a perfect fit for Rivian’s EVs which are what it calls “the world’s first electric adventure vehicles”.
And so it seems, does RJ Scaringe:
It’s not just idle talk either; Washington believes a real opportunity exists for Rivian in Australia, where made-to-last, rough-and-tumble vehicles form part of the country’s psyche.
“We’re really excited to see a company like Rivian considering coming to Australia,” Washington tells The Driven.
“Our two best sellers are the in Australia are Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, both of those being dual cabs. Amarok, Navarra, Triton are all staples …. which means Australia has a love affair with dual cabs,” he says.
Washington draws a comparison between Rivian’s R1T pickup (ute), and says that the fact that Rivian are offering their all-electric vehicles with up to 800kWh batteries and 600km range is significant.
“Rivian’s story is all about electric adventure, and almost one of the final barriers to mass EV uptake [in Australia] is the Australian dream to drive where ever you want, we want to go camping and go offroad,” he says.
“We have this perception of a big brown land and freedom associated with motor vehicles, more so than other countries – we are more like the US in that regard.”
The dreams of freedom and adventure that are embedded in a brand like Rivian could be a game-changer for Australians that want long range electric vehicles – but the size of the batteries also fills other needs, such as powering camping kit such as kettles, lights and so on.
“Rivian will have 180kWh batteries (which would need to be kept charged at campsites) – you don’t need a big campervan or trailer, you can just use your car,” Washington says.
Of course, that’s where companies like Jet Charge come in – for Washington, the prospect of a company like Rivian bringing EVs to Australia highlights the need for ultra fast chargers.
“With the first 350kW units are starting to go in, it comes at the perfect time,” he says.
“We want Rivian to consider having Australia as one of their first markets.”
With distinctive oblong headlights and no-nonsense solid design, the R1S and R1T that Rivian says boast an incredible 370-660km range depending on battery option (105 kW, 135kW or 180kW battery packs are on offer), and good torque that starts at 560Nm for even the lowest spec’d model.
Add to that a 5000kg towing capacity for the R1T ute and 3,500kg for the R1S SUV – plus a wading depth for both of 3 feet – and you have a pretty good setup for some offroad adventuring right there.
The Rivian R1S. Source: Twitter/Rivian
While Rivian is still a little known name for many, it does look like big things are on the horizon for the company which first hit the media spotlight last November when it launched its electric SUV and ute (referred to in the US as a pickup) at the 2018 LA Auto Show.
The deal with Amazon brings Rivian’s total fund raising to date to around $US1.15 billion ($A1.6 billion), and will enable the EV startup to cement strategic relationships that will be valuable as it works towards a scale-up.
“We will bring on additional partners, but less because of capital reasons and more because of a need to have strategic relationships as we scale towards our broader vision,” said Scaringe, per Bloomberg.
Rivian are also in talks with GM reportedly, although further details about that are under wraps until an agreement is reached – if this happens, it could balloon Rivian’s value to $US2 billion, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.
The Rivian R1T. Source: Twitter/Rivian
When will Rivian make it here, though? Washington says that while pre-orders for Australia were supposed to open last year, this still has not eventuated on the Rivian website.
Both are still for the moment available for pre-order in the US, and only (of course) in left-hand drive – there is no firm pricing yet for either vehicle.
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems so call us if we can be of support 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au
