More than half of the solar PV inverter shipments were for installations in Germany, which grew by 388% in Q2, driving total shipments up to more than 8 GW for the first 6 months of 2010 – a three-fold increase over the same period last year.

According to PV Research Director Ash Sharma, the “4.9 GW of inverters shipped made it the largest quarter on record and 30% higher than the previous record of 3.7 GW shipped in Q4’09”.

Sharma adds: “Shipments of 8 GW in the first 6 months of the year appear to support IMS Research’s prediction of close to 15 GW of new PV installations in 2010; with Q3 and Q4 both expected to be strong quarters for suppliers”.

Whilst MW solar PV inverter shipments grew 284% in Q2, revenues ‘only’ grew by 165% due to a 30% fall in solar PV inverter prices.

Despite extraordinarily high demand amidst tight supply, solar PV inverter prices fell for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q2’10. Much of this can be attributed to a continuing shift towards larger inverters, which have an inherently lower price per Watt.

The solar PV inverter market

With the market currently being affectecd by extremely high demand along with production issues, major changes in the market share of suppliers are expected this year. IMS Research estimates that market leader, SMA Solar Technology’s market share fell by 5% in Q2’10, whilst Power-One was the industry’s biggest share gainer, up by more than 6%.