ABB aids IKEA with TRIO-50 solar inverters in Singapore

ABB has provided the Swedish retailer IKEA with 20 breakthrough TRIO-50 solar inverters to power a rooftop solar system on its store in Singapore, located in the east suburb of Tampines.

The system is set to produce 1.3 million kilowatt hours per year sufficing  for 280 households. Installation of the solar panels began at the IKEA store in March 2017 and the project went live in 2017.

ABB won the order through its customer, a leading solar system integrator, Phoenix Solar, in the first quarter of 2017. With this rooftop system, IKEA expects to trim an estimated $2.4 million from the store’s electrical bills over the next ten years.

Mark Argar, Phoenix Solar Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific, said: “We are proud to partner with ABB to provide IKEA with top-class solar PV systems supporting the company’s move towards clean energy. We are committed to advancing wider adoption of solar power in Asia and doing so requires teaming up with technology pioneers like ABB that have the knowledge and skills to do quality installations.”

Governments in South East Asia have also embraced renewable initiatives, such as Singapore’s Economic Development Board’s Solarnova projects, Thailand’s Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP), and Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy Authority (SEDA) policies, laying the foundation for sunnier days ahead in the region.

The system is designed to combine the performance and price competitiveness of a central inverter with the portability and flexibility of a string inverter, the TRIO-50 will see further deployment on other IKEA roofs in South East Asia. In Malaysia, 500 kW of the TRIO-50 will power the IPC Shopping Center, South East Asia’s first shopping mall anchored by IKEA. In Thailand, the upcoming IKEA store at Bangyai, near Bangkok will feature 1.5 megawatts of the TRIO-50 on its rooftop carport.