INVOLAR Microinverters

1. INVOLAR Microinverters Evaluation of ROI of a 3 kW PV system

2. LEGISLATION The purpose of government support of PV is to encourage the development of renewable energy by creating an environment conducive to investment. This could be achieved through: • Feed-in tariffs • Net Metering Scheme • Premium Price • Subsidy (I, II, III) • Forward Sales Contract

3. ELECTRICITY PRICES BY COUNTRY

4. SYSTEM INFORMATION

5. Thailand

6. LEGISLATION : Feed-In Tariff • • Use a feed in tariff premium system, whereby the producers receive market price for the electricity generated, plus a fixed premium • • Systems up to 10kW in size will receive a premium of $0.22/kWh • • Systems from 10 kW - 250 kW: $0.21/kWh • • Systems from 250 kW – 1MW: $0.19/kWh • • Fixed for 25 years • • Must sell all electricity generated – electricity price from grid: 0.08 $/ kWh • • Systems must be installed by December 2014 • The legislation was lunched in July 2013 • http://revolution-green.com/2013/07/28/thailand-solar-a-shinning-example-for-the-rest-of-the-world/ • http://helapco.gr/pdf/FiT_vs_FiP_NREL.pdf

7. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 7 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 5 years * Average salary in Thailand- 8500 USD / year

8. Poland

9. LEGISLATION: Green Certificate for 1MWh • Green Certificate (certificate of origin) per 1 MWh • • Electricity producers may also sell their electricity on the market or offer it to an electricity supplier at last year's market price • • Operators of micro-installations (up to 40 kW system) who decide to sell their generated electricity to an electricity supplier receive only 80% of last year's market price. (100% market price of electricity for more than 40 kW system) • Electricity market price 2012: 0.19 $/kWh • 80% = 0,152 $/ kWh • Fit in 2014 will be 0.12 $/kWh • http://www.res-legal.eu/search-by-country/poland/single/s/res-e/t/promotion/aid/quota-system-2/lastp/175/

10. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 17 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 12 years.

11. Hawaii

12. LEGISLATION: Feed-in tariff / Net Metering Scheme • Choose between FIT and Net Metering Scheme • Net Metering Scheme: • • Not paid, but receive credits for excess electricity generated that will offset electricity consumed when the PV system is not producing • • No monthly fee • • Not taxed • • Do not need insurance for systems under 10 kW • “storage”-> “credits” -> buy for “free” • FIT • • Receive payments for any energy fed into the grid. For systems up to 20kW, receive $0.21/kWh • • Any electricity consumed from the grid is charged at $0.25 kWh • • Must pay $25 a month to follow a FIT system. • • Taxed on FIT payments. • • Need insurance. • *http://www.heco.com/portal/site/heco/menuitem.508576f78baa14340b4c0610c510b1ca/?vgnextoid=2ef1894ba55bb210VgnVCM1000005c011bacRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&cpsextcurrchannel=1

13. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 9 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 6.5 years.

14. CROATIA

15. LEGISLATION : Feed-in Tariff • For PV installations with a capacity of more than 1 MW, the feed in tariff is equal to the average electricity production costs • Based on these figures, the following tariff rates apply: • Installation size≤ 10 kW: 0.46 $ / kWh • Installation size 10 kW – 30 kW: 0.39 $ / kWh • Installation size 30 kW – 1 MW : 0.28 $ / kWh • Installation size1 MW: average electricity production costs • There is a cap for solar energy: The Croatian electricity market operator provides feed-in tariff funding only for the first 15 MW of building-integrated PV capacity and the first 10 MW of other PV capacity • *http://www.res-legal.eu/search-by-country/croatia/single/s/res-e/t/promotion/aid/feed-in-tariff/lastp/359/

16. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 8 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 5.5 years.

17. SLOVENIA

18. LEGISLATION : Feed-in Tariff / Premium Price • FIT (Guaranteed price) • sell electricity to the Slovenian power market operator Borzen at a "uniform annual price", i.e. the feed-in tariff (alternatively, they can opt for a premium tariff). This guaranteed price applies only to plants whose capacity does not exceed 5 MW • The following feed-in tariffs are calculated for October 2013 : • Building mounted PV installations: • up to 50 kW: 0.16 $ / kWh • up to 1 MW: 0.15 $ / kWh • up to 5 MW: 0.12 $ / kWh • Other PV installations: • up to 50 kW: 0.15 $/ kWh • up to 1 MW: 0.14 $ / kWh • up to 5 MW: 0.12 $ / kWh • For each following month the tariff is reduced by 2%.http://www.res-legal.eu/search-by-country/slovenia/tools-list/c/slovenia/s/res-e/t/promotion/sum/192/lpid/191/

19. LEGISLATION : Feed-in Tariff / Premium Price • Premium Price • Operators of renewable energy plants with an installed capacity of up to 5 MW may choose to sell their electricity directly on the market instead of receiving the guaranteed purchase price (feed-in tariff). In this case, they will receive the so called "operational support" (i.e. a premium tariff). Power plants with a capacity of more than 5 MW may only opt for this support scheme • http://www.res-legal.eu/search-by-country/slovenia/tools-list/c/slovenia/s/res-e/t/promotion/sum/192/lpid/191/

20. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverter when the producer decides to consume all the electricity generated is ≈ 20 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 14 years. Comments: the amortization time is high because of the low amount of money the system owners receive as FIT/Incentives. Customers prefer to self-consume all electricity

21. SWITZERLAND

22. LEGISLATION : Feed-In Tariff • As of April 2014, <10kW will receive a compensation of max 30% of investment costs • All energy consumers pay $ .01 more on their energy bill for every kWh consumed to fund the feed in tariff = budget of $350 million a year • Solar capped at 5-10% of total FIT budget. Will stay at 5-10% as long as PV power production costs are $0.55 higher than average power production price of $0.09. Can increase to 30% of the budget as PV prices reduce • Assured for 20 years • Long waiting list for PV until quotas are increased in 2014. • Plan to cut FIT by 35-40% and lower remuneration period to 15 years. • Swiss Solar Association estimates a ROI at 22 years • http://www.swissolar.ch/en/unsere-themen/feed-in-remuneration-for-electricity/ • http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/switzerland-plans-radical-solar-subsidy-cuts_100012484/#axzz2liIAv1hC • http://www.bfe.admin.ch/themen/00612/02073/index.html?lang=en • http://www.swissolar.ch/fileadmin/files/swissolar_neu/1._Unsere_Themen/1.02_KEV/KEV-Tarife_eng.pdf

23. LEGISLATION : Feed-In Tariff

24. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 8 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 5.5 years.

25. Singapore

26. LEGISLATION: Forward Sales Contract –Electricity Future Market • electricity generators can choose to enter into FSCs, in return for participating as market markers in the electricity future market • the FSCs provide participating generators with certain level of revenue certainty particularly in the start-up phase where generators are building necessary capabilities • the total volume for the FSC is 8,400GWh over the 3-year tenure, which is approximately 6% (per annum) of the forecasted annual electricity demand from 2014 to 2016. The volume of FSC (i.e. 700HWh per quarter) is to be allocated evenly across all time periods in the quarter during the contract duration

27. FINANCIAL ASPECT: From the generation Company point of view

28. FINANCIAL ASPECT: From the consumer point of view

29. HUNGARY

30. LEGISLATION : Feed-In Tariff • There are three different tariff rates depending on the time of day (peak time, mid-peak time, off-peak time) • Plants approved after 01/01/2008 and of 20 MW or less: • 0.14 $ / kWh; No difference between peak and off-peak hours. • Plants of more than 50 MW (date of approval irrelevant):  • peak time: 0.1 $ / kWh • mid-peak time: 0.06 $ / kWh • off-peak time: 0.06 $ / kWh • FIT is the same as electricity price from grid (0.14 $ / kWh) • *http://manitusolar.com/bits/english/financing_solar_PV_Hungary.php • http://www.napelem.net/hungarian_PV_Manitu_Solar/Hungarian_PV_Market_Remains_6-8MW_in_2013.php

31. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 21 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 14.7 years. Very low FIT

32. CYPRUS

33. LEGISLATION : Premium Tariff/Subsidy • Cyprus promotes renewable electricity generation through: • Net metering expired 15.11.2013 • Premium tariff - for On-grid PV installations of up to 150 kW - 0.19 $ / kWh • Subsidy I : Domestic off-grid PV installations of up to 20 kW or off-grid PV installations of non-profit organizations of up to 20 kW – 55% of the total costs of the investment (maximum $27.084) • Subsidy II: Domestic off-grid PV installations of up to 20 kW - 40% of the total investment (subject to a maximum of $ 20.313/plant) • Subsidy III : PV until 3kW (aggregate installed capacity 6MW i.e. 2,000 households) - The subsidy amounts to $1.218 per kW (max. $3.656 per installation) ; in aggregate 6MW, i.e. approximately 2,000 households, of PV installations will be subsidized • http://www.res-legal.eu/search-by-country/cyprus/tools-list/c/cyprus/s/res-e/t/promotion/sum/116/lpid/115/

34. FINANCIAL ASPECT: Amortization and ROI Conclusion: The payback time of a 3kW system with a central inverteris ≈ 11 years, while the payback time of the same system with microinverters is ≈ 7.5 years. Low FIT

35. CONCLUSIONS

37. All in all, the average amortization time for a 3 kW system with central inverters is 13 years, while the amortization for the same system but with microinverters installation is 9 years.