Fronius reflects on operations

FRONIUS REFLECTS ON A DECADE OF OPERATIONS DOWNUNDER

As Fronius Australia marks its tenth year in operation, the team reflects on some of the early challenges in Australia and looks forward to a bright future.

BELOW: Derek Butterworth from SAE Group took home the world’s only golden Primo, to be installed at the Living School, Northern Rivers, NSW, a new progressive co-learning school looking to develop a rapid solar charging station for the school’s future solar buses FRONIUS HAS BEEN SELLING into the Australian market since 2000, officially opening the doors to its Australian subsidiary in Tullamarine, north of Melbourne in November 2010. Since then, Fronius inverters have been recognised for their quality, reliability and innovation.

“When we first opened in Australia everyone was excited and relieved to have a local subsidiary,” recalled Solutions Manager, Rod Dewar, “Solar was going well, tariffs and rebates were high so it was a busy time. It was also challenging because while our IG products were optimal for the European market, the Australian market was facing some unique installation and climate challenges.

“Without the subsidiary here for training and a general lack of industry experience at the time, many imported Fronius products over the previous decade were installed incorrectly. Additionally the market was moving towards transformerless inverters.”

Fronius responded in 2011 by releasing the IG TL. “It was very installer-friendly, easy to install with new, innovative communication features, and the 5kW version sold well.

“But then there was a change in regulation ASNZS5033 that restricted voltage on residential roofs to 600 volts instead of 1000 V. That made that inverter extremely difficult to configure and was a major set-back for us.”

Managing Director Keshia Noronho commented “Those challenging early years gave us the backbone we needed to be successful in the everchanging solar industry. I believe the success of Fronius Australia rests not only on having a great product, but also the value placed on great service and strong partnerships that was built up among the team in those early years.”

With a new snap-in design and remote monitoring features, the release of the first Fronius SnapINverter in 2013, the Fronius Galvo, turned the tide for Fronius in Australia.

“Monitoring was more of an add-on in those days, and would have cost anywhere up to $1000 to install. Initially, the Fronius Datamanager Card was going to be an add-on but the Australian subsidiary saw the need for it to be inbuilt, making it one of the first Wi-Fi cards inbuilt as standard,” Rod Dewar explained. “People started getting more interested in monitoring then, and it really helped installers from a service and maintenance point of view.

“The inbuilt DC isolator also helped with inverter popularity as it made installation easier and safer with less connection points. But it was with the Fronius Smart Meter that Fronius really started paving the way for solar as we know it today. This made energy management possible for the first time.”

Late last year the one-millionth SnapINverter rolled off the Fronius production line in Sattledt, Austria. To mark the occasion, Fronius sent three golden inverters to its biggest markets: Germany, Brazil and Australia.

It was a milestone for Fronius Australia, being recognised as one of the most important markets for Fronius globally.

Fronius Australia ran a competition to find a worthy home for this significant inverter, and the lucky recipient was SAE Group (which integrated a lot of the vision of 24 hours of sun into their entry) who also scored a trip to Fronius’ headquarters in Austria to tour their state-of-theart production facilities and visit Intersolar Europe. According to Keshia “Martin Hackl (Head of Solar) and Walter Stockinger (Head of R&D) were taken by the idea of the golden inverter finding its home in a school focused on the environment and a green future, with generations to come learning about solar and other ways we can achieve 100 per cent renewable energy supply such as e-mobility.”

What’s next for Fronius in Australia?

The Symo GEN24 will be the first cab off the rank in the widely anticipated new line-up of products from Fronius, to be available in Australia from late Q3/early Q4.

Keshia Noronho believes the GEN24 Symo 10kW inverter will be very popular in the small commercial and residential spaces. Providing true three-phase back up, the GEN24 Symo will allow small commercial premises to factor storage into their PV system designs, further enabling a decentralised energy supply and making use of commercial roof space to support the national electricity grid.

Additionally, large three-phase homes with high energy demand will now have an efficient solution with high storage capability.

Fronius is a Platinum member of the Smart Energy Council. www.fronius.com

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