Building a better micro inverter

There are competitors out there that build a better micro inverter. The last time Gozuk quoted us a price it was $1.15 per watt, not anywhere near the cost per watt of string inverters. (Understand that we will not use them because independent of their warranty, there are other issues associated with reliability and performance.)

Our string inverter supplier has been building DC/AC inverters for over 30 years. At our present quoted prices - the difference is actually 4.7X per watt in favor of the string inverter. And yes, this is real world!

Valid points associated with the maintenance on a roof top mounted system. It takes more labor to install and repair then stand alone pole mounted systems. There is also less liability associated with potential roof repair during the life of the system.

It seems that some have a passion for micro inverters, I personally like the idea. In some situations if you are trying to build up your system as an individual and you are going to have different sized panels as you progress through the years, micro inverters are a low cost, reasonable approach. But if you are putting up an overall system, at this time, I do not see it justifiable from an overall BOS (balance of system) cost.

We continue to qualify a few micro inverters each year. This provides us with real history as to improvement in the product. But the costs are not justified for a complete system, only for engineering.