Inverter Price Environment
Solar Electricity Prices
Solarbuzz Consultancy Reports
Home
 
Inverter Prices

Inverter Price Highlights:    November 2009


Summary

Retail inverter prices maintain their pattern of erratic price moves - one month up, the next month down.

This proved to be the case again this month. In October, 43 price increases had outpaced 26 increases. However, in this month's survey there were no price increases, but 12 price decreases were logged.

The small number of price moves was not sufficient enough to move the US index.

The All Inverter Index (see right) includes the full basket of Inverters on the worldwide survey represented in US dollars and European, Euros. Further segmentation of this data can be accessed through our consultancy services.

The Price Index (see right) is based on Prices per Continuous Watt - which is a measure of the output power of Inverters. The larger the Continuous Watt, the larger the power of the Inverter.

The same calculation methodology applies to this Index as the Solar Module index - i.e. it is based on the purchase price for a single Inverter. The main difference in methodology between this Index and the Solar Module Index is that all global inverter prices are aggregated in to a single Index. Those aggregated products are then simply translated from the local currency in to either US dollars or European euros.

This month, the dollar was unchanged against the euro over the month. As a consequence, the euro index was unchanged at 0.489 per continuous watt.

The mix of Inverter Retailers is still dominated by US Retailers. Around 90% of the prices are quoted in US dollars.

All Inverter Price Index
US $ per
Continuous
Watt
Euro per
Continuous
Watt
Nov
2009
0.719
0.489
Oct
2009
0.719
0.489
Sep
2009
0.719
0.503
Aug
2009
0.720
0.504
Jul
2009
0.721
0.512
Jun
2009
0.721
0.519
May
2009
0.721
0.548
Apr
2009
0.720
0.547
Mar
2009
0.720
0.569
Feb
2009
0.720
0.562
Jan
2009
0.720
0.518
Dec
2008
0.719
0.561
Nov
2008
0.719
0.568
Oct
2008
0.719
0.517
Sep
2008
0.722
0.491
Aug
2008
0.722
0.462
Jul
2008
0.721
0.454
Jun
2008
0.721
0.461
Number and direction of Inverter Price Changes


Where companies only quote list prices on the Internet, the mix of list and actual prices will be reflected in movements on the survey. However, discount structures will be applied when calculating the Solar Electricity Indices elsewhere on this site, in order to avoid overstating the cost of solar energy to newcomers to the industry.


Price Changes
Nov
2008
Dec
2008
Jan
2009
Feb
2009
Mar
2009
Apr
2009
May
2009
Jun
2009
Jul
2009
Aug
2009
Sep
2009
Oct
2009
Nov
2009
Number of Prices that Increased
28
12
27
7
17
21
37
20
23
13
9
43
0
Number of Prices that Decreased
43
8
9
10
19
33
18
24
15
41
37
26
12
Number of Prices Unchanged
930
998
987
1014
981
858
863
911
917
913
920
872
928

While the overall Price Index usually moves in the same direction as the relative movement of increases to decreases in the table above, the magnitude of the move can occasionally mean that the direction diverges - the size of the prices decreases relative to the increases was greater. Therefore, the Inverter price index shows a decrease even the ratio of price increases to decreases implies higher prices.

Size of Inverter Price Survey


The overall average is between three and four price points per product. The most listed product this month has 10 entries on the November 2009 survey. In other words, this particular product features on 10 of the 30 sites in the survey.

Survey Base
Nov
2008
Dec
2008
Jan
2009
Feb
2009
Mar
2009
Apr
2009
May
2009
Jun
2009
Jul
2009
Aug
2009
Sep
2009
Oct
2009
Nov
2009
Number of Companies in Survey
37
37
37
35
35
33
32
31
31
33
29
29
30
Number of Prices Tracked
1001
1008
1023
1031
1017
912
918
955
955
967
966
941
940
Number of Product Models
217
219
221
241
242
196
201
224
227
229
227
230
237


Most product listings are from companies marketing out of the United States. These companies market solar products globally. There is less public display of prices in the key Japanese markets, but growing representation from European countries. The survey does include companies from USA, Germany, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Bulgara, Switzerland and Canada. Exchange rate conversions are made on the date of the survey.

In order to retain consistency in the data, the prices are based on the purchase of one Inverter and are the lowest price displayed on the Internet site (sometimes, this price is described as a 'sale price'). Most sales companies offer discounts on multiple unit purchases and some companies offer to match the lowest price of competitors.

Major Inverter Brands*


Major Product Brands/Manufacturers covered in the survey are listed below. Click on the underlined names to go to the Company web sites or click here to go to names and addresses and contact details.

Advanced Energy
Systems
Fronius Outback SMA Regelsysteme Studer
Advanced Electronic
Supply (AES)
Go Power! Electric Inc. PowerPro
(Tumbler Technologies)
Solarix Xantrex Technology Inc
Beacon Power Heart Interface PowerSine Solsum
Cherokee Electronics Omnion PV Powered Soltek
Exeltech   Sharp Electronics Statpower a

* some manufacturers market under multiple brand names

Inverter Prices

© 2009 Solarbuzz, LLC. All rights reserved