What is going on with string inverters being out of production?

[foggysail]

GEES——- What if our Country has a national emergency? Time for our government to make manufacturing conditions attractive for companies. I wonder how 87,000 new IRS employees will help bring companies manufacturing back to the states

[solardreamer]

From what I hear from my vendors, virtually all the string inverter companies are dead in the water over not being able to get needed microchips. SMA is now saying 3rd qtr 2023! Fronius same.
Inventories are already cleaned out everywhere. And you know my attitude toward Enphase and SolarEdge. Is this really happening to the solar industry? Record sales going on because of the tax credit being renewed, but can't build them. Anybody go to SPI and hear different or a viable solution? There are some Chinese brands, but ....

It's not just the solar industry. The power semiconductors used in many things (solar, cars, etc.) are in very short supply because the big mainstream (mostly European) manufacturers shutdown production capacity during the pandemic and it takes quite a while to restore the original production capacity. The Chinese semiconductor manufacturers have more availability at good price but that requires new design/test/cert cycle which is likely to take just as long. Some US/Japan semiconductor manufacturers also have availability but at much higher prices which is another issue in addition to new development delay. The Chinese inverters are probably the fastest economical alternatives. Many people seem to be satisfied with Growatt inverters but support is likely a weak point.

[azdave]

I've read the same thing about SMA struggling to meet demand due to those chip shortages. Supply chain woes are far from fixed. Our company just took delivery of some raw material out of Asia that used to have a 45-day lead time but was ordered and paid for well over a year ago. We ran out of stock by December and it pretty much killed that product line for us. Now that we have materials again, we have to hope the business will return.

Is now a good time to sell my new spare inverter and retire off the proceeds?

[solarix]

From what I hear from my vendors, virtually all the string inverter companies are dead in the water over not being able to get needed microchips. SMA is now saying 3rd qtr 2023! Fronius same.
Inventories are already cleaned out everywhere. And you know my attitude toward Enphase and SolarEdge. Is this really happening to the solar industry? Record sales going on because of the tax credit being renewed, but can't build them. Anybody go to SPI and hear different or a viable solution? There are some Chinese brands, but ....