Alectrona
Commercial inverters · over 50 kWpSMA brings 40-plus years of German inverter engineering, free-standing Sunny Tripower design with integrated arc-fault protection, and the deepest plant-control and export-limitation stack of our brands. We specify it on that engineering merit, and we are straight with you about the manufacturer's restructuring.
These are representative example reviews, not yet-collected customer feedback. They are written to illustrate the kind of feedback Alectrona aims to earn and are shown as design placeholders while we gather and verify reviews from our first commercial clients. Alectrona is the commercial solar trading brand of RVTC LTD.
What set Alectrona apart was the documented design pack. We had quotes from three installers, but only Alectrona handed us a full set of drawings, a single-line diagram and a design referencing BS 7671 and the G99 connection process. The whole thing read like an engineering submission rather than a sales brochure. Our M&E consultant reviewed it and signed it off without a single query. That gave the board the confidence to release the capital.
Other firms priced our roof off a satellite image and a desktop guess. Alectrona flew an in-house drone survey, fully insured and flown by a qualified commercial drone pilot, and built a 3D model of the actual roof. It picked up plant, vents and a parapet line that a flat aerial photo had completely missed, which changed the panel layout. I would rather find that out at design stage than on the day the scaffold goes up. The accuracy of that survey is the reason I trusted everything that followed.
As a finance director I was wary of being oversold a system bigger than we could use. Alectrona modelled the array against our actual half-hourly consumption data rather than an annual total, so it is sized to what we genuinely draw on site during the day. They were honest that exporting surplus is worth far less than self-consumption, and built the design around that. The capital case stacked up because the engineering was honest, not because the numbers were inflated.
We were undecided between buying outright, leasing and a PPA. Alectrona laid out all three side by side with the pros and cons of each against our balance sheet, instead of pushing the one that pays them best. They were clear about where a PPA makes sense and where capex wins, and pointed us at our own accountant for the tax treatment. The survey and design took a little longer than I expected, but the thoroughness was worth the wait. Genuinely consultative.
The install crew were tidy and well run, and worked to a clear CDM 2015 plan with a proper site induction and RAMS. What impressed me most was the handover. We received a full commissioning pack with the IEC 62446-1 test results, certification, O&M documentation and an as-built record for our maintenance team. As the people who have to live with this asset for the next twenty years, having that paperwork in order matters enormously. Nothing was left loose.
I expected the usual hard sell and got the opposite. After surveying our site Alectrona told us one roof section was not worth covering because of shading, and that a smaller, well-sited array was the better investment than filling every square metre. There was no commission-driven upselling and no pressure. For a six-figure capital project, that straight talk is exactly what you want from the people advising you. We will be using them again on our second site.
SMA Solar Technology AG, founded in 1981 in Niestetal near Kassel, is one of the oldest and most established inverter makers in the industry and a top-five non-Chinese manufacturer, with particular depth in large commercial and utility plants. Its Sunny Tripower line introduced the first free-standing string inverter, a design built to stand on its own feet on a commercial roof or in a plant room rather than hang on a wall, and the commercial range now runs from a 50 kW unit up to 150 kW string inverters and on into utility-scale central stations. For a finance director the relevant point is engineering depth and plant control, and that is where SMA earns its place on our list.
Alectrona is the commercial arm of RVTC LTD, engineer-led and Yorkshire-based. On a site above 50 kWp, outside MCS, we specify the inverter that fits the design and the connection, then confirm the manufacturer's warranty backing and standing before we commit it to a contract. SMA is one of the inverter brands we can procure and support through UK distribution, and it is the one we reach for when a large connection needs serious export control and grid-code compliance. We are also plain about its current finances, set out in full below, because honesty about the maker is part of the recommendation.
We reach for SMA when a project needs depth on the engineering and the grid-side controls rather than the lowest capital cost. The free-standing Sunny Tripower CORE design carries integrated arc-fault circuit interruption and SMA ShadeFix optimisation, which recovers yield across partial shading at string level without a device on every module, and the larger CORE and 125 units carry 12 MPP trackers across 24 string inputs, so a roof split across several pitches and orientations can be grouped cleanly. On large ground-mount the Sunny Highpower PEAK3 takes a single-MPPT, 1500 V approach that pushes peak efficiency to up to 99.1% where strings are uniform. Whether a free-standing string platform or a central architecture suits your site is a design call we set out in string versus central inverters.
The deciding factor is often the connection. SMA's plant-control stack, the SMA Data Manager for centralised commissioning and the SMA Power Plant Controller for active and reactive power control, export limitation and grid-code compliance, is the deepest of our inverter brands, and on a large UK connection where the DNO sets firm conditions that depth does real work. We specify SMA on that engineering and plant-control case, not on a bankability badge, and never as a default where a simpler three-phase string inverter from another brand suits the roof just as well.
We are equally clear about what SMA is not. It does not lead the BloombergNEF Inverter Bankability survey, which Sungrow holds, and it has been through a serious restructuring. We hold those two questions, the engineering and the corporate finances, separate, and we set the finances out plainly so the recommendation is made with full information rather than on reputation alone.
The commercial range we draw on starts with the Sunny Tripower CORE1 (STP 50-41) at 50 kW, the world's first free-standing string inverter, with six MPP trackers across 12 string inputs, integrated arc-fault protection and ShadeFix, just clearing the >50 kWp line and well suited to split-pitch commercial roofs; the STP 62-41 sibling extends it to around 62 kW. Above that sits the free-standing flagship, the Sunny Tripower 125 (STP 125-70) at 125 kW with 12 MPP trackers across 24 string inputs, SMA ArcFix arc-fault protection and ShadeFix, up to 98.4% peak efficiency and IP65. It is the current successor to the now end-of-sale CORE2 (STP 110-60), and we specify the 125 across the board.
For large ground-mount and decentralised utility duty the Sunny Highpower PEAK3 is the building block: the SHP 150-20 at 150 kW on a 1500 V DC architecture reaches up to 99.1% peak efficiency, and the SHP 100-20 at 100 kW is its 1000 V-architecture sibling, both single-MPPT designs picked by site DC voltage rather than roof complexity. Above the string range, the Sunny Central UP stations with the SMA Power Plant Controller cover utility-scale plants on a 1500 V architecture, configured per project with project-negotiated warranty terms; we confirm the exact model and figures with SMA before publishing any number for those.
The right unit, MPPT count and DC-to-AC ratio come from the PV*SOL model for your site, not from a catalogue line. Every figure on this page is taken from the SMA datasheets and is confirmable, and we confirm live SKUs, firmware and the current warranty term with the UK distributor before contract; what we never publish is a price.
Monitoring and plant control are the genuine SMA strength, and they matter most on exactly the large UK sites this page concerns. The stack runs from ennexOS, SMA's cross-sector energy-management platform on which the Sunny Tripower X and current 125 are built natively, through the Sunny Portal web and app monitoring, the SMA Data Manager M gateway for monitoring, energy management and centralised commissioning of up to around 50 devices, the SMA Energy Meter and COM Gateway for metering and RS485 integration, and SMA Smart Connected, an automatic proactive fault-detection service bundled with the commercial inverters. The inverters expose SMA Modbus, SunSpec Modbus, Speedwire and Webconnect interfaces, so they sit cleanly in a wider monitoring platform or a facilities BMS.
For larger plants the SMA Power Plant Controller adds active and reactive power control, export limitation and grid-code compliance across Sunny Highpower and Sunny Central fleets. Where a DNO sets a firm export limit as a condition of connection, we configure dynamic export control to G100 so the site holds its agreed limit without curtailing self-consumption, and we document the settings so the constraint is auditable. Every commercial inverter is commissioned to BS 7671 and IEC 62446 and registered for G99 with the DNO before energisation.
Our support does not end at handover, and given the manufacturer's financial position the hands-on UK support matters more here than on a more settled brand. We hold the monitoring access, handle warranty claims and DNO correspondence, and keep the as-built records a financier or facilities team needs over the asset's life. SMA's string inverters carry a 5-year standard factory warranty, extendable to 10, 15 or 20 years through SMA's ACTIVE or COMFORT extension plans; utility stations carry project-negotiated terms. We confirm the warranty term, the extension options and how the warranty is backed in writing before contract, and register it at commissioning so it runs from handover.
125 kW rated / 125 kVA three-phase free-standing string inverter, 12 MPP trackers (24 string inputs), up to 98.4% max / 98.1% European efficiency, 1100 V max DC, IP65, with SMA ArcFix arc-fault protection and ShadeFix; the current free-standing commercial flagship for large multi-pitch roofs.
150 kW rated / 150 kVA three-phase string inverter (up to 225 kWp array), single MPP tracker, up to 99.1% max / 98.8% European efficiency, 1500 V max DC, IP65, with Integrated Plant Control and SMA Data Manager fit; for uniform large ground-mount on a 1500 V DC architecture.
100 kW rated / 100 kVA three-phase string inverter (up to 150 kWp array, 400 V AC), single MPP tracker, up to 98.8% max / 98.6% European efficiency, 1000 V max DC, IP65; the 1000 V-architecture sibling of the SHP 150-20, picked by site DC voltage.
50 kW rated / 50 kVA three-phase free-standing string inverter (up to 75 kWp array; STP 62-41 sibling about 62 kW), 6 MPP trackers (12 string inputs), up to 98.1% max / 97.8% European efficiency, 1000 V max DC, IP65, with integrated arc-fault protection and ShadeFix; clears the >50 kWp line and suits split-pitch commercial roofs needing many MPPTs.
Models shown are confirmed against the current datasheet and your design at survey. The figure for your system comes from the PV*SOL model, not a price list.
We will not gloss over it. SMA reported FY2025 revenue roughly flat at about EUR 1.52bn but a widened net loss of about EUR 181m, against about EUR 118m in 2024. Its EBITDA before one-time items stayed positive at about EUR 107m, but EBITDA including one-time items fell to about minus EUR 65m on inventory write-downs, provisions and restructuring charges, and it is running a multi-year Transformation cost programme with announced job cuts and one-time charges of roughly EUR 170m to 220m. The mitigant we state alongside that: the part of the business this page concerns, Large Scale and Project Solutions, grew its revenue in 2025 and is the healthier division, and SMA remains a long-established German manufacturer. Before we specify SMA we confirm in writing how the warranty is backed and how UK support and spares are arranged, and if a more financially settled inverter suits your site just as well, we will say so.
No, and we will not claim it is. The BloombergNEF Inverter Bankability survey is led by Sungrow, which holds the top position. SMA held a top rating in the early 2020s but has since slipped amid shipment declines, so it would be dishonest to present it as the most bankable inverter. That inverter survey is also separate from the BloombergNEF Tier 1 list, which applies to PV modules rather than inverters, so neither badge sits with SMA. We position SMA on its genuine strengths instead: 40-plus years of German engineering, the free-standing CORE design with integrated arc-fault protection, and the deepest plant-control and export-limitation offering of our brands. We confirm current standing for the exact model before any project where a financier requires it.
For commercial roofs the lead is the free-standing Sunny Tripower range: the 50 kW CORE1 with six MPP trackers, and the 125 kW Sunny Tripower 125 with 12 MPP trackers across 24 string inputs, the current free-standing flagship for large multi-pitch roofs. For large ground-mount we use the Sunny Highpower PEAK3, the 150 kW SHP 150-20 on a 1500 V architecture at up to 99.1% efficiency or the 100 kW SHP 100-20 at 1000 V, both single-MPPT designs for uniform strings. Utility-scale plants use the Sunny Central stations with the SMA Power Plant Controller. The exact model and count come from the PV*SOL design for your site.
It handles the grid-side conditions a DNO imposes on a large site. The SMA Data Manager gives centralised commissioning and monitoring across the inverter fleet, and the SMA Power Plant Controller adds active and reactive power control, export limitation and grid-code compliance across Sunny Highpower and Sunny Central plants. Where the connection carries a firm export limit, we configure dynamic export control so the site holds its agreed limit without curtailing self-consumption, and we document the settings so the constraint is auditable. This depth is the main reason we reach for SMA on large connections rather than a simpler string platform.
Tell us about the roof and the load. We size the array in PV*SOL, set the export position with your DNO, and specify the inverter that fits, with the model and warranty named and no from-price.