Siemens Canada goes live with solar inverter manufacturing
Staff
Electronics CEL
Siemens Canada's Industry Automation division has begun local manufacturing of its SINVERT solar inverters for the Canadian solar photovoltaic (PV) market.
Manufactured at the company’s Burlington facility, the manufacturing of PV Inverters in Ontario allows Siemens’ customers investing in commercial and large ground mount applications, to meet the "minimum required domestic content level" set by the Ontario government’s feed-in-tariff (FiT) program.
"Siemens is a leader in supplying green solutions," stated Joris Myny, vice president, Industry Automation and Drive Technologies, Siemens Canada. "In addition to job creation, our commitment to manufacture inverters locally is another example of how Siemens is helping to create clean energy that is linked to a sustainable future."
Siemens has invested more than $3 million (CAD) in design, test equipment and upgrades to the facility to accommodate the inverter production line. There are currently 10 employees directly involved in the solar PV inverter production at the facility and Siemens is well on its way to creating 50 skilled job positions in business development, engineering and production to support its PV business in Canada.
"Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan is an economic plan which is building our clean energy economy, creating thousands of jobs and attracting billions of dollars of investment for Ontarians. At the same time Ontario is replacing dirty coal which is cleaning up the air we breathe and building a healthier future for generations to come. Thank you to Siemens for being a part of this rapidly growing clean energy industry," says Brad Duguid, Ontario’s Minister of Energy.
PV Inverters play a significant role when it comes to solar generated electricity. The technology that Siemens is providing takes DC power as input generated from PV-Modules and converts it into AC power, which is then relayed into the grid. The Siemens plant is capable of producing inverters with an annual output of approximately 250 MW, or enough to power around 32,000 homes.
"The first inverters to come off the production line have been shipped to solar farms in Ontario," stated Anthony Bezina, Plant Manager at the Siemens Burlington facility. "Our two decades of experience in local drives manufacturing enabled us to ramp up production successfully over the last months."
