Renewable energy inverter market forecast to grow to USD 19bn by 2017

Jul 18, 2012 - The market for inverters for renewable energy applications will more than double over the next five years, growing to over USD 19 billion (EUR 15.5bn) in 2017 from an estimated USD 7.2 billion in 2011, Pike Research projects.

Between 2012 and 2017, almost 290 GW of vendor-supplied renewable energy inverter capacity is expected to be installed globally across four main segments -- solar photovoltaic (PV), small wind power, stationary fuel cells, and vehicle-to-grid enabled vehicles. Europe will remain the leading market, representing 43% of overall capacity deployed through 2017, mainly as a result of solar inverters, the market research firm says. The Asia Pacific region will install 72 GW of inverters, while North America -- 66 GW.

Research analyst Dexter Gauntlet said that to avoid the fate seen by PV module makers as a result of falling prices, inverter companies should boost functionality, cut costs and seek differentiation from the increasing competition. Gauntlet said that while established inverter makers, namely German SMA Solar Technology (ETR:S92), Austrian Fronius International, Satcon Technology (NASDAQ:SATC) and Power-One (NASDAQ:PWER) of the US, German Kaco New Energy and Spanish Ingeteam, benefited from their size and market reach, innovative technologies by start-ups such as US Enphase Energy and SolarBridge Technologies were quickly changing the industry.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.816)

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