At the beginning of 2021, we at ADLER developed and certified our own range of gPV fuses, satisfying the increasing demand on higher fuse calibers. A strategy mainly focused to reduce the quantity of string combiner boxes used in a PV Utility scale installation.

After a extensive engineering and development work during the last few years, our engineers decided to use the normalized, IEC-compliant 22x58 mm fuse sizes instead of the other common sizes, such as the 120x27 mm, which, beside its longed design of 127 mm, exhibited poor thermal performance inside combiner boxes.

The final size of 22x58 allowed the best physical material properties for that kind of fuse within this size and covers fuse-ratings from 35 A up to 80 A at 1.500 Vdc and it is UL-certified.

In the development of such innovative, new products, we worked closely together with string-combiner box manufacturers and thanks to these active collaborations, we reached an important conclusion: technical studies show that our products reduces the need of combiner boxes by three times.

It seems paradoxical, since less combiner boxes would mean less business for these manufacturers, but in fact, it is an opportunity to refresh this market and helps to strengthen the Central Architecture. We are sure, that this will bring new capabilities to these manufacturers and additionally diversifying and pushing new businesses around the combiner box market.

The Central Architecture is still the predominant way to project current PV plants, and the engineering, EPC’s and the whole chain of suppliers are continuously improving its efficiency and reducing costs. So, ADLER’s new products will ensure the global electrical efficiency and keep making the Central Architecture as the main resource-conscious way to setup a PV Utility scale plant.