Sungrow Unveils Powerful New Solar + Battery System for Homes and Businesses in South Africa

Solar power solutions company Sungrow has launched a new line of three-phase hybrid inverters and battery energy storage systems for the South African market. The systems are designed for both residential and commercial/industrial applications, offering scalable and efficient energy solutions.

For homes, Sungrow’s new single-phase inverters come in 6kW and 10kW models. The real stars, however, are the three-phase hybrid inverter options at 15kW, 20kW, and 25kW capacity. “Last year, we were mainly focused on launching our single-phase inverter that was mainly dedicated to residential households. But now we’re seeing that the attention and focus in South Africa is moving towards low commercial and industrial applications, and for those kinds of loads, we typically require a three-phase hybrid inverter,” said Ezzat Sankari, Sungrow Middle East and Africa channel business director.

These inverters can be paired with Sungrow’s 9.5kWh or 25.6kWh lithium ferro phosphate batteries to create a hybrid solar + storage system. The three-phase design provides more power for energy-intensive appliances and equipment in large homes or small-to-medium businesses.

“The system deploys high voltage lithium ferro phosphate, which by nature of the circuit architecture makes the losses internally inside the inverter much less,” explained Sankari. Sungrow engineer Leonard Visser added that the high system voltage allows smaller cable cross-sections, reducing overall losses.

The units feature three maximum power point trackers to optimise roof solar installations of different orientations. They also utilise Sungrow’s patented PID Zero technology to prevent long-term degradation of solar panels from potential induced degradation (PID), which can reduce power output by up to 30%.

For larger applications, the inverters are paralleled with up to 890kWh of battery capacity across 32 batteries. Sungrow offers a potent 125kW string inverter for commercial and industrial (C&I) use cases. The system’s 10ms changeover time during a grid outage enables seamless backup operation.

“With that being said, you can start your battery capacity from 25.6kWh up until 890.2kWh,” said Visser. He claimed the batteries offer 100% depth of discharge over 6,000 cycles, outlasting competing products.

Visser highlighted the system’s strong safety features, like an arc-fault circuit interrupter that can isolate faults across 200m of solar cables in 200ms. The system also integrates with Sungrow’s iSolar cloud monitoring app for tracking real-time energy consumption.

With 40% of its workforce in R&D, Sungrow continues innovating sustainable energy tech like hydrogen energy storage systems and EV charging infrastructure. Their new three-phase hybrid system marks a major step in deploying resilient and cost-effective solar for South Africa’s residential and C&I sectors.

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