Type | Joint Stock Company |
---|---|
Industry | Power electronics |
Founded | 1991 |
Defunct | 2014 |
Headquarters | Biel/Bienne, Switzerland |
Key people | Christoph von Bergen |
Products | Solar inverter and accessories |
Number of employees | 360 (01/2012) |
Website | www.solarmax.com |
Sputnik Engineering AG was a Swiss company specializing in the development, production, distribution, and maintenance of grid-connected photovoltaic inverters. The headquarters of the company are located in Switzerland (Biel/Bienne). Sputnik Engineering has subsidiaries in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Greece and China. The bankruptcy estate was bought up by the German photovoltaic group RenerVest and the SolarMax brand was rebuilt in Germany.
Sputnik Engineering AG had been working in the field of solar energy since 1991 and is one of the pioneers for the industry that invented, among others, the first transformer-less inverter in 1994. The Company was founded in the Swiss city of Biel and concentrated on the development, production, and distribution of inverters for grid-connected PV systems. With its brand “SolarMax“, Sputnik Engineering is able to offer a suitable device for all applications: one-family houses, farms, and even solar plants producing several megawatts. [1]
Sputnik Engineering AG, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
Sputnik Engineering produces string inverters and central inverters for all sizes of solar systems, from small systems for roofs to solar plants producing several megawatts. For small systems they offer string inverters from the S and P series of SolarMax with a nominal capacity from 2 to 5 kW and for medium-sized systems the MT series of SolarMax (8 to 15 kW). The central inverters Sputnik Engineering offers include the S series of SolarMax (20 to 35 kW), the TS series of SolarMax ( 50 to 300 kW), the TS-SV series of SolarMax (330 kW) and the power station (330 kW to 1.32 MW). [2] Sputnik Engineering also develops accessories and solutions for data communication for the monitoring, planning, and control of photovoltaic systems. [3]
Sputnik Engineering AG was founded in 1991 as a spin-off to the engineering school in Biel, Switzerland, and introduced the first three-phase central inverter with fully digital controls and regulation to the market. The next technical innovation was the development of the first transformer-less inverter. [4] In 2001, the subsidiary Sputnik Engineering GmbH was founded in Germany as a reaction to the considerable growth in demand for photovoltaic inverters. In 2006 the subsidiary in Spain was founded, 2007 the Italian subsidiary followed, 2008 France and 2011 China. Locations in Belgium, United Kingdom, Greece and Bulgaria were added successively.
The RABDe 500, is a Swiss high speed passenger train which was introduced in 2000, in time for Expo.02 held in western Switzerland in 2002. Its maximum speed is 200 km/h (120 mph), which can be reached on the Mattstetten–Rothrist new line; as of 2018 the RABDe 500 uses the branch to Solothurn only; the ICNs reach 200 km/h in the new Gotthard Base Tunnel. The train sets were a joint development by Bombardier, Swiss Federal Railways and Alstom, with an aerodynamic body designed by Pininfarina, bogies and tilting mechanism designed by the then SIG, Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft.
The term solar panel is used colloquially for a photo-voltaic (PV) module.
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Lobosillo Solar Park is a 12.7 MW-peak photovoltaic power plant located in Lobosillo, Murcia, Spain, making it at the time the third largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the world.
A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system's overall performance and include an integrated battery solution, as prices for storage devices are expected to decline. Strictly speaking, a solar array only encompasses the ensemble of solar panels, the visible part of the PV system, and does not include all the other hardware, often summarized as balance of system (BOS). As PV systems convert light directly into electricity, they are not to be confused with other solar technologies, such as concentrated solar power or solar thermal, used for heating and cooling.
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SMA Solar Technology AG is a German solar energy equipment supplier founded in 1981 and headquartered in Niestetal, Northern Hesse, Germany. SMA is a producer and manufacturer of solar inverters for photovoltaics systems with grid connection, off-grid power supply and backup operations.
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Gehrlicher Solar AG is a German photovoltaics corporation with its registered office in Neustadt near Coburg and its administrative headquarters in Dornach near Munich. Gehrlicher Solar AG acts as a system integrator, planning, building, financing, maintaining and operating photovoltaic systems on open areas and roofs. In addition, the corporation acts as a wholesaler for solar modules, inverters and complete photovoltaic systems as well as offering its own developed components from the „GehrTec“ family of products.
A rooftop photovoltaic power station, or rooftop PV system, is a photovoltaic (PV) system that has its electricity-generating solar panels mounted on the rooftop of a residential or commercial building or structure. The various components of such a system include photovoltaic modules, mounting systems, cables, solar inverters and other electrical accessories.
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant is a large-scale photovoltaic system designed for the supply of merchant power into the electricity grid. They are differentiated from most building-mounted and other decentralised solar power applications because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. The generic expression utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project.
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