Earlier today, wind and solar inverter manufacturer Power-One, makers of Aurora inverters, officially opened its first manufacturing facility in the USA.
The Phoenix, Arizona plant will achieve an output capacity of 1 gigawatt by the end of 2011 and can be expanded to reach 4 gigawatt wind and solar inverter production – enough to service up to two million homes.
A PV inverter is a device that sits between solar panels and a building’s mains electrical supply. It converts the DC voltage generated by the solar modules into AC, suitable for use by appliances.
Power-One is the inverter industry’s quiet achiever, having grown significantly in the last year to become the second largest manufacturer of solar inverters in the world, behind SMA. The brand has been gaining traction in Australia’s solar power market through its range of Aurora inverters.
Governor Jan Brewer, who presided over the opening ceremony, stated that Arizona now ranks number one in the USA for solar industry and manufacturing . Greater Phoenix Economic Council President and CEO Barry Broome said Phoenix’s renewable energy industry is in a very strong position and he expects to see continued growth of the supply chain during 2011.
The 11,334 square metre facility is expected to employ around 350 people once operating at it full capacity.
Power-One also makes power management products for routers, data storage and servers, wireless communications, optical networking and semiconductor test equipment.
The global solar inverter market is predicted to reach $8.5 billion by 2014. 7 million inverters are expected to be solar that year; up from less than 1 million units in 2009.
