SMA - OptiTrac Global Peak

Solar Questions and Comments
1

Hi, I’m getting quotes for a new residential solar system with 5kW inverter (6.6kw panels), and need to decide between Fronius or SMA Sunnyboy.

I’m leaning towards the SMA due to the OptiTrac Global Peak technology which supposedly reduces the impact of shading.

I have also got a quote for SolarEdge (which uses DC isolators and also minimises shading impacts), but this was significantly more expensive.

Have you any information or feedback on the OptiTrac technology? Would this feature result in better outputs from the SMA compared to Fronius?
Thanks for your advice.
Rebecca

2

Hi Rebecca

How bad is your shading issues? Have you received any quotes? I am not very familiar with the OptiTrac Global Peak technology so unable to comment but could research it if required. Which state are you in?

Thanks
Ivan

3

Hi Ivan,

I am at the Gold Coast, Qld.

The shading isn’t significant enough to avoid putting the panels on, but the trees around would have an impact on the hours that we would receive full sun.

The quote was approx $6,400 for the SMA Sunnyboy 5kW inverter and 20 x Trina 330 W Honey PERC mono panels (6.6Kw).

I also have a quote (from a different company) for the 5KW Fronius and 21 x 315 Seraphim blade panels (6.615KW) which was $6,200.

Thanks

Rebecca

4

Hi @Rebecca_Batton,

OptiTrac has been around for a long time. Despite the very nice marketing video that SMA has about it, from the limited info that I’ve heard about it, it does not sound like it makes a big difference in the real world. I haven’t heard any installers suggest going for an SMA Sunny Boy because of it.

If you’ve got serious shading issues, I think you should look at panel level optimisation (Tigo, SolarEdge, Enphase). There are a few people on this forum that are big proponents of Enphase, and argue that they will offer you the best return on investment long term. There’s many others who strongly back Fronius.

Checkout our inverter articles on SMA, Fronius, Enphase and SolarEdge here:

If you’re interested in micro inverters, this topic will be useful:

Hope that helps

Marty

Solar Power Installers Brisbane

1 Like
5

Thanks for the info @Marty. That definitely helps.

Appreciate your offer Ivan @3VisoSolar but we have enough quotes now.

Cheers
Rebecca

6

Hi Rebecca

I appreciate and respect that you do not want anymore quotes. The only reason I mentioned it was because our prices for the systems you mentioned would be $5,550.0 for option 1 and $5,300 for option 2.

Wishing you the best and hope you enjoy your new solar system.

Thanks
Ivan