Fronius International is a long standing well established company which has been running for 60 years, which like a lot of other large companies has delved into solar, as the company’s drive is already focused on energy this was the perfect venture for them to make. The company originated in Pattenbach- Austria and began with the production of battery chargers and welding transformers.
The first solar grid connected inverter was produced in 1995 called ‘Sunrise’, in 1997 Fronius won the award Innovation prize of the Province of Upper Austria award for the Sunrise Solar inverter.
In 1998 their second inverter was introduced to the public, although this was specifically made for a stand-alone Solar unit it was the first-anywhere that the until and the charge controller actually worked together as they should, an Innovation prize of the Province of Upper Austria was also won for this unit the year after.
In 2001 the most popular of the Fronius grid connected inverters was produced, the ‘Fronius IG’ had many features such as its incredibly low weight, the fact it was compatible with many of the photovoltaic modules and the new feature of data communication via plug-in cards. This inverter was made specifically based on the domestic clients’ needs with many new features and a good low price. As with the previous this also won an award, ‘The environment prize of the Province of Upper Austria’.
By 2001 the company was growing much bigger far more quickly, and a brand new huge facility was opened where the company first originated- Pattenbach.
2004 was a very good year for Fronius the production maximised from 70MW to a massive 200MW! Also a big step which was getting the grid connected inverters certified to sell in the USA.
By 2013 Fronius had moved on immensely in the Solar Electronics department, improving technology day by day now their focus was on marketing and keeping their high standards and spreading the words of their motto ‘Why do we love a challenge? Because challenges breed innovation.’
