Chennai-based ReGen Powertech, which manufactures wind energy turbines, has announced its foray into solar inverters. The company has been producing wind turbines with technology from the German company, Vensys. It will now produce solar inverters also with Vensys technology.
The company has said it would produce the inverters – devices that convert the direct current produced by solar power plants to alternating current that all our appliances run on – from its existing manufacturing units at Chennai and Udaipur. The inverters will be available in three capacities – 1 MW, 1.5 MW and 2 MW.
Anirudh Khemka, Head – Renewables, Hybrid and Special Initiatives, ReGen, said that these inverters would be India’s first water-cooled machines and can operate in temperatures as high as 55 degrees Celsius. Further, their output power comes at 630 volts, which, would result in lower cost of transformers.
ReGen already produces ‘converters’ that go along with wind turbines—which convert the AC power first to DC and then back to AC at the appropriate frequency. As such, the company has experience in manufacturing devices that convert DC into AC. Also, ReGen’s ‘operations and maintenance’ fleet of 300 people will be available to service the solar inverters.
At a function held in Chennai on Tuesday, Mr Juergen Rinck, Managing Director of Vensys, Germany, said that there about 18,000 MW of solar power plants in the world had Vensys inverters.