SMA Solar Inverters Australia

About SMA

‍

SMA is an absolute powerhouse of the renewable energy industry, with a presence in 18 countries around the world. Founded in Germany in 1981, SMA’s sole focus is on solar energy inverters and batteries.

‍

SMA’s global sales revenue in 2022 was over €1bn, and over 100gW (yes, giga-watts!) of their products have been installed worldwide.

‍

Are SMA Solar Inverters High Quality?

‍

Absolutely. SMA is a company that prides itself on its German engineering, and they’ve got the awards to prove it. Next to their Austrian competitor Fronius, we’d say SMA is practically without peers when it comes to quality.

‍

Whilst all SMA solar inverters are German engineered, they are manufactured in different countries depending on the model you purchase. The smaller single phase Sunny Boy solar inverters (1.5kW-2.5kW) are made in Germany, whereas the larger single phase Sunny Boy solar inverters (3kW-6kW) are made in China. As at February 2024, all of the Sunny Tripower three phase solar inverters are made in Germany.

‍

Is SMA a Well Supported Solar Inverter Brand in Australia?

‍

SMA has had a presence in Australia since 2007, with a sales and support office in Sydney, staff in the field around Australia, and a decent network of reputable solar distributors wholesaling their products. In our experience they support installers and system owners well, even for older systems under extended warranty.

‍

SMA claims that there are over 750,000 of their solar inverters installed in Australia. In fact, they have a very cool live heat map where you can see exactly how much all of their solar inverters are producing collectively at any given time. Most Aussie installers seem to love SMA solar inverters, which figures given how many they have collectively installed since SMA arrived on these shores.

‍

About SMA Sunny Boy and Sunny Tripower Solar Inverters

‍

The simplest way to differentiate between the SMA Sunny Boy and SMA Sunny Tripower solar inverter is to look at their names. The blue Sunny Tripower solar inverter is for three phase installations, whereas the red Sunny Boy solar inverter is for single phase installations. In many instances we would opt to use the single phase Sunny Boy on your three phase property - it will usually have no impact on your solar savings.

The SMA Sunny Boy solar inverter definitely stands out with its red colour!

The blue cover on the SMA Sunny Tripower is a little more understated.

‍

One pretty incredible benefit of purchasing an SMA Sunny Boy or Sunny Tripower solar inverter is that the warranty is extendable by up to an additional 10 years, for 20 years total. Unlike some competitors, there’s no extra charge for this from SMA.

‍

All Sunny Boy and Sunny Tripower solar inverters also come standard with some unique inverter software (or firmware) proprietary to SMA called ShadeFix. It’s easiest to think of this feature as an alternative to something like Tigo optimisers, which help prevent one panel with shade de-rating the whole string of panels.

‍

Pros and Cons of SMA Sunny Boy and Sunny Tripower Solar Inverters

‍

Pros - Why We Recommend SMA Sunny Boy and Sunny Tripower Solar Inverters

‍

Quality German engineering
Free warranty extension options - up to 20 years total
Lightweight and compact design means more options for mounting
Proactive monitoring - SMA notify you if there’s a fault
Proprietary ShadeFix inverter software optimises production if a panel or panels are shaded

‍