The IRA has been the primary topic of conversation at the solar + storage industry’s biggest tradeshow since its inception, but at this year’s trade show, I noticed the talk turned from ambiguous to much more concrete. Manufacturers are crunching the numbers and auditing products to help project owners meet domestic content bonus requirements with fewer components.
Here’s what I heard on domestic content and new product updates from exhibitors in Anaheim on Day 1 of RE+.
Enphase
Enphase’s current suite of home energy management devices.
Enphase recently announced its new battery and microinverter models — IQ Battery 5Ps and IQ8HC, IQ8P-3P and IQ8X microinverters — were made with higher percentages of domestic content. Microinverters are up to 35.6% domestic content, while batteries will be 45% starting in October. The company is planning on rolling out the next generation of both its batteries and IQ9 microinverters in early 2025, along with a bidirectional EV charger. IQ9s will be built with gallium nitrate for higher efficiency.
Enphase’s work bringing as much inverter manufacturing in-house as possible means projects could qualify for the domestic content bonus without using American modules, according to cofounder Raghu Belur. Enphase’s new inverters paired with U.S. racking could suffice.
SolarEdge
SolarEdge’s TerraMax ground-mount inverter.
SolarEdge is planning upgrades and releases in 2025 in both the small- and large-scale solar space. The company is adding new capabilities and sizes to its residential Home Hub Inverter, which is expected to qualify for full domestic content incentives by the end of this quarter. SE is releasing its next-generation battery, a stacked DC-coupled system with an inverter on the top later next year. The company makes inverters in Austin, Texas; optimizers in Seminole, Florida, and will start manufacturing batteries in the U.S. in Q1 2025.
In the commercial space, SE is entering the ground-mount business with its 330-kW TerraMax inverter, a product suited for community solar projects with long strings and simplified optimizers. The company plans to move C&I inverter manufacturing into the U.S. in 2025, but is starting with the residential segment first.
EPC Power
EPC Power’s modular M Series inverter.
U.S. manufacturer EPC Power unveiled its first solar-focused inverter at RE+. The M System uses a centralized string inverter architecture made up of 500-kW building blocks. Each self-contained block within the unit is entirely “rip and replace-able,” for highest possible uptime in the field, attempting to combine the best of both string inverter field replaceability and central inverter ease of access. These inverters are manufactured in California and South Carolina and are expected to begin shipping in May 2025.
Power Electronics
The HEM inverter from Power Electronics’ website, because I simply couldn’t get a good cell phone photo of this enormous product.
Power Electronics plans to replicate its 30-GW Spanish factory in Houston, Texas, and begin making inverters, storage PCS and EV charging stations there in fall of 2025. The company’s HEM 1,500-V solar inverter is its flagship product for the U.S. market, giving installers the convenience of a built-in transformer and switchgear all on a large skid. It’s a central inverter with a modular design so huge solar projects are protected against massive power loss in the event of a fault in any one module.