April 2001
New in the US: SMA America Inc.
Leading supplier of grid tied PV inverters in Europe
SMA Regelsysteme GmbH of Niestetal,
Germany has founded a new subsidiary
in Grass Valley, California. SMA America Inc. is a joint venture
between SMA Regelsysteme
GmbH and SMA’s exclusive
worldwide
distributor,
Rosendahl Energietechnik
GmbH. With the creation of
the new subsidiary, the company is responding to the
emergence of a viable North
American market for grid
tied PV systems. SMA America Inc. will support the
growth of this new market
segment.
President of SMA America
The new SMA building with a PV-façade
60 °C ambient temperature ratings. The modular
design approach can be
John Berdner
scaled to virtually any sysFounded in 1981, SMA
tem size while reducing
Regelsysteme GmbH has grown to over
DC wiring and overall installation costs.
400 employees and is the leading supString inverters are available in sizes
plier of grid tied PV inverters in Europe.
from 700 Watts to 2,500 Watts and
With over 40,000 units in the field,
include localized maximum power
SMA’s innovative Sunny Boy line of string
tracking to maximize array energy yield.
inverters has become the most successful grid tied PV products to date. SMA
SMA also manufactures large grid tied
products were ranked first and second in
inverters and modular inverters for
a recent comparison of ten different
hybrid systems with batteries. The Sunny
inverter systems in Germany’s prestiCentral products are designed for large
gious Stiftung Warentest magazine.
centralized PV systems with ratings from
20 kW to over 1 MW in size. SMA’s innoThe string inverter concept, pioneered
vative new Sunny Island inverter is a
by SMA, offers a number of advantages
modular, multi-mode, inverter charger
over other grid tied inverters available
designed for hybrid systems with battertoday (you will find more information on
ies. The Sunny Island integrates seamthe string technology on page 4). To
lessly with Sunny Boy string inverters and
allow installation in virtually any locaother generation sources to create
tion, the Sunny Boy products feature
sophisticated hybrid power systems
completely sealed, powder coated
while minimizing design effort. All memstainless steel enclosures and –25 °C to
bers of the Sunny Family utilize SMA’s
comprehensive Powerline Communication system to provide an unprecedented level of options for data collection,
display, and system control.
SMA is quality certified to DIN ISO 9001
and operates three distinct business
units: PV Technology, Industrial Microprocessors, and Power Conversion Systems for Railway Applications. The company’s Sunny Family of PV inverters are
CE and TÜV approved. With the addition of the UL listing at the beginning of
this year, SMA has become the first
inverter company to offer PV inverter
products that meet global regulatory
requirements.
Mr. John Berdner (photo) has been
appointed President of SMA America
Inc. He is well-known in the PV-industry
and has more than 20 years´ experience in the field of electronics and photovoltaics. For more information contact
SMA America Inc., or visit our website at
www.SMA-AMERICA.com.
14 good reasons ...
649 Sunny Boys at Herne/Germany
Sunny Boys for island grids
850 Sunny Boys at Sydney/Olympic Stadium
why to use PV inverters from SMA
SMA Regelsysteme GmbH was founded
in 1981. The main field of activity in the
early days was the development and
production of inverters for decentralized
electricity supply systems. Today 400
qualified employees develop and produce high-tech industrial microprocessor components, energy-supply systems
for railway coaches, and trend setting PV
system technology for world-wide
usage.
System Technology for PV-systems
Today SMA has become a well-known
supplier of high-tech microprocessor
components, energy supply systems for
railway coaches and inverters for electricity conversion of photovoltaic power
plants. SMA works in the fields of windenergy conversion, PV technology,
hybrid systems such as hydrogen cell
technology and wind-diesel-battery systems. In the field of energy conversion
and system technology for PV-plants
SMA has become pioneer for advanced
system design as well as European market leader. From 1986 to 1989 SMA
developed and produced centralized
inverter systems in output ranges of 20
to 500 kW with the grid-controlled
thyristor based systems of the PV-WR-T
series.
As part of the “1000-Roof-Program”, a
subsidy program started in 1990 and
funded by the German government,
SMA introduced the PV-WR inverter. With
sizes from 1 to 5 kW the PV-WR set fundamental standards for redundant grid
monitoring, communication, and EMC.
1. New Sunny Boys
The development of modular system
technology resulted in the trend setting
Sunny Boy string inverter family. More
than 60 MW AC of total inverter power
have been installed to date, defining
new standards in PV technology.
In spring 2000, SMA added another
inverter to the Sunny Boy Family. Due to
the increasing demand for higher voltages and power levels we launched the
Sunny Boy 1100E with an extended
input voltage range of 150 to 400 V DC.
Our customers now benefit from
increased output power for the same
price.
Do you want more? The transformerless Sunny Boy 2000 has 20 % more
power than the previous model while the
price has remained the same. SMA’s
most powerful inverter – the Sunny Boy
2500 – offers our best price to performance ratio yet. In the beginning of 2002
we will launch the first inverter with
multi-string technology: the Sunny Boy
5000 Multi-String. With its ultra wide
input voltage range, the multi-string
inverter can operate with virtually all
standard PV modules.
The advantages of the modular string
technology were also used for the development of island type PV-plants. This
approach resulted in our Sunny Island
battery inverter. This inverter is the first to
support a modular, expandable system
design for utility independent electricity
systems. Continuous improvement
combined with the implementation of
advanced system strategies are the
basis of our position as a trend setting
market leader ensuring continuous
growth of solar energy usage.
2. SMA –
A strong partner into the future
SMA Regelsysteme GmbH with 400
employees is a high-tech company with
continual 30—40 % annual growth. The
company is the largest supplier of gridinteractive PV inverters in Europe.
SMA has gained experience from:
● Over60MWACof total “Sunny Boy
string inverter” power installed so far
● Over 40,000 “Sunny Boy” string
inverters sold
● Deliveries into nearly every European,
North, and South American country
as well as India, Korea, Japan and
Australia.
3. Trend Setting Technology
For over 15 years now SMA has been at
the cutting edge of PV technology. The
company has played a major role in PV
developments and contributed to considerably increasing market acceptance
of grid-interactive PV technology.
4. Serial Production
The “Sunny Boy” inverter range has
been on the market for over six years.
From the very beginning we designed it
for large-scale serial production. During
1999 alone, more than 8,000 Sunny
Boys were delivered. With our recently
expanded production capabilities we
can double these figures each year for
several years to come. This ensures that
we can produce any number of inverters, no matter how strong the demand
might be.
The Sunny Boys’ production optimised
design means you can count on longterm high quality.
5. Safety
The “Sunny Boy” from SMA is the first
inverter to comply with all applicable
national and international standards.
Furthermore, SMA has always been a
pioneer in new safety technologies such
as redundant anti-islanding protection
and all-pole sensitive GFCI – offering a
maximum of protection.
Independent institutions have certified
that the Sunny Boys from SMA comply
with all applicable standards (such as
UL and EC Standards covering low volt-
age and EMC). Ask for proof – we will be
happy to show you the corresponding
certificates.
6. Long Life
The Sunny Boys are designed for a MTBF
of over 100,000 hours and more than
20 years of operation. In order to
achieve this long life SMA selects only
the best available components such as
selected electrolyte capacitors with the
best available temperature performance, etc.
7. Outdoor Mounting
SMA is the first manufacturer to design
all its inverters for outdoor operation.
The stainless-steel cases comply with
protection class IP65 (NEMA 4x). The
electronics even operate in extreme
weather conditions with ambient temperatures of –25 °C to +60 °C.
Over 60 MW AC of total SMA inverter
power have been installed to date. SMA
therefore has extensive experience with
the outside mounting and every detail is
continually improved. No other manufacturer of PV inverters has such extensive and long-term experience in outdoor mounting of inverters.
8. Easy to Install
In order to save time and cost during
installation, all “Sunny Boys” have a very
simple and practical three-point mounting system. SMA was the first manufacturer to use an electrical connection system with safe-to-touch plugs. This simplifies installation and allows the wiring
to be prepared in the workshop in order
to save time on site later.
9. Accessories
Numerous accessories for SMA inverters
are available including measuring and
monitoring systems, PC visualization
software, and external displays.
A fax report automatically generated by
the system can inform you about the
operation of your plant. In case of a fail-
For detailed information on our communication equipment, please see our
“Sunny Boy Communication” brochure.
needs. On request, we can also train
your employees on your own premises.
Our comprehensive training program
combined with the excellent quality of
our products ensures the customer’s
long-term satisfaction.
10. Powerline Communication
13. Project Planning
SMA is the only producer of inverters
that use Powerline communication. No
additional specialized data cables are
needed for transmission of all data.
Instead, data is simply transmitted over
the existing power cables. With SMA’s
powerline carrier system, PV plants can
be easily monitored at extremely low
costs. SMA has installed several thousand of these devices to date. With over
six years of experience, SMA has the best
know-how and is the largest supplier of
this data transmission technology.
Using its years of experience in PV technology, SMA supports its customers in
the project planning phase of largescale PV plants. On request, an experienced team of SMA employees can
manage the commissioning or even the
installation of PV plants on any site
worldwide.
ure a report is automatically faxed to any
number desired.
11. Customer Service
SMA has a team of technicians and
engineers with over 10 years´ experience in the development and production
of PV inverters for grid supply. With their
detailed knowledge of operating conditions, regulations for inter-connection to
the grid, and grid conditions in nearly
every country on the globe they will
gladly help you with any problem you
might have.
In addition, SMA customers benefit from
● A customer service hotline
● A 24-hour exchange service
● Two-year warranty-standard
● Option to extend the warranty to 5
years or more
● Repairs at a fixed rate
● Free-of-charge software updates via
internet
● Up-to-date documentation and information on our homepage:
www.SMA-AMERICA.com
14. Quality
SMA production complies with ISO
9001. The company has been Q1 supplier to customers such as Deutsche
Bahn AG (German Railways) for years.
Furthermore SMA has been successfully
audited as a supplier to various customers in the automobile and electronics industry such as Volkswagen,
Phoenix and ABB.
The Sunny Boy was the first PV inverter
incorporated into a PV system to receive
the “TÜV PROOF” certificate by TÜV
Rheinland. This quality certificate stands
for excellent technical and practical features.
In a 1999 test of PV modules and inverters our devices were qualified “good”
(Sunny Boy 850) and “very good”
(Sunny Boy 1500). For detailed test
results please see the leaflet “Sunny
Boys, the test winners”.
12. Training
SMA offers its customers regular seminars and training courses. With over 10
years of practical experience in running
these training classes, SMA has been
able to work out an up-to-date training
program responding to actual practical
SMA America Inc.
John S. Berdner
20830 Red Dog Road
Grass Valley, CA 95945, USA
Phone: 530.273.4895
Fax: 530.274.7271
e-mail: berdner@SMA-AMERICA.com
The Sunny Boy 2500
Now Available in the US!
The Sunny Boy 2500 is the first string
inverter to be listed according to the latest UL 1741 guidelines. Active antiislanding protection to meet the stringent IEEE 929 requirements and an integral Ground Fault Detector Interrupter
are standard features.
The string inverter technology, developed by SMA, has revolutionized PV
applications in Europe and made the
SMA inverters the favorite of European
customers. SMA is the European market
leader of inverters with a power range of
up to 5 kW. String Technology utilizes a
small number of PV-modules connected
in series to create a “string“. A small
number of strings are connected to individual inverters that feed the electricity of
the string directly to the grid. The string
inverter concept minimizes the complexity of the DC wiring system and reduces
overall system costs. The energy produced by the PV system is combined on
the AC side, making system design very
simple. Using multiple string inverters,
larger PV plants can be easily created
with minimal design
effort.
The Sunny Boy
2500, with a nominal output power of
2200 W and a maximum output power
of 2500 W, is the
largest member of
the Sunny Boy family.
The high maximum
efficiency of 94 % and large heat sink
eliminates the need for cooling fans.
This design allows the use of a completely sealed, NEMA 4X enclosure to
provide protection against dirt, dust,
and water thereby insuring a long, trouble free life. The powder coated, stainless steel NEMA 4X enclosure and an
extended ambient temperature range of
– 25 °C to + 60 °C means the Sunny Boy
2500 can be mounted outdoors in
almost any location.
Now
UL
listed!
A very wide DC input voltage range of
250 – 600 V DC and the ability to con-
nect up to three parallel strings, allows
the system designer to use nearly any
module configuration. Experience in
Europe has shown that the economically ideal system design is with a PV array
size of 2,700 to 3,400 Wp at standard
test conditions.
The inverter’s operating data including
PV voltage, output power, and daily
power production can be viewed using
the optional “Sunny Display” – a twoline LCD integrated in the lid. In larger
PV-systems, data from multiple inverters
can be stored and viewed using the
SWR-COM plug in modem and a PC or
via the stand alone “Sunny Boy Control”
data logging devices. Other possible
communications options include plug in
RS232 and RS485 modules. All of the
various options for communication and
data display are described in detail in
the “Sunny Boy Communication”.
The newest member of the Sunny Boy
Family, the Sunny Boy 1100E will be
launched by SMA in the end of 2001.
This smaller string inverter shares all of
the advanced features of the Sunny Boy
2500 but with an input voltage range of
150—400 V. The lower input voltage
range and lower output power rating
make the 1100E an ideal choice for
smaller systems. Look for more detailed
information on the new 1100E and
other developments from SMA in the
next issue of Sunny Boy Info or on the
World Wide Web at:
www.SMA-AMERICA.com .