Spanish supplier Ingeteam exceeds 2 GW milestone in Australia

Ingeteam on Friday revealed it had passed the 2 GW milestone for solar power supplied as PV inverters in Australia thanks in large part to an impressive 2020. Despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Ingeteam supplied 753 MW of its inverters to Australian projects in 2020. The inverters have been, or are set to be, installed at eight solar PV projects, taking the total solar power awarded to Ingeteam since its arrival in Australia to 2,096 MW.

Among the projects to utilise Ingeteam’s PV inverters are the 160 MW Maryvale  and the 39 MW Molong solar farms in New South Wales.

Ingeteam Australia director Juan Miguel Gutiérrez said the achievement complimented the Australian launch of Ingeteam Service, the company’s operation and maintenance division.

Gutiérrez said the 2 GW of power “is a nice, round number, but the important thing is that it reaffirms the confidence that our customers are placing in our solutions, in a market in which the technical requirements demanded by the power companies and grid operator are probably the toughest in the world.

“Our customers highly value the fact that Ingeteam is able to offer a complete package of products and services, which not only includes the PV inverters and transformer substations with all the low- and medium-voltage equipment, but also the power plant controller (PPC) system, the SCADA, the equipment commissioning work and the operation and maintenance service.”

Gutiérrez said the service division had already secured its first contract to provide operation and maintenance services at two solar PV power plants. While the company did not identify the facilities, it did reveal they have power ratings of 85 MW and 75 MW respectively and were commissioned in December 2017.

Ingeteam has been active in Australia since 2013 and since then has established itself as the second largest supplier of PV inverters in the market with German manufacturer SMA continuing to lead the way.

SMA Australia project sales director Joshua Birmingham said in December the company had sold 1.6 GW of PV inverters in 2020 alone to claim a major share of the estimated 6.5 GW market.

“The renewable energy transition in the Australian market has been genuinely remarkable. Just five years ago, SMA supplied the first project of more than 10 MW into the Australian market; this year alone, we have closed 1.6 GW,” he said.

“SMA is proud to be leading Australia’s solar and renewable energy transition and remain at the global forefront of the decarbonisation of electricity generation.”