The COVID-19 pandemic will not have as serious implications for the inverter industry as it has had for the broader solar industry, reported Wood Mackenzie.
As the global inverter market breached $9 billion last year, inverter shipments also hit a record high, falling just short of 130 gigawatts. In addition to growing global solar installations, two factors propelled the inverter market in 2019: The stepdown of the U.S. investment tax credit (ITC) from 30 percent to 26 percent and the growth of the inverter replacement market in Europe. However, coronavirus is expected to reduce inverter shipments in 2020 by 14 percent compared to pre-coronavirus expectations.
While solar PV modules were developers’ first choice to qualify for the ITC, they also chose to safe harbor PV inverters, albeit at
