Power-one Aurora Solar Inverters

By James Martin II on

Power-One is an Italy-based company that manufactures a range of power conversion and management products, and is well-known in the solar PV industry for its quality solar inverters for residential and commercial solar applications–especially its Aurora inverter line. The company was established in 1973, and began producing components for renewable energy systems in 2006. The Power-One solar catalogue offers a range of transformerless inverters and monitoring equipment for solar power systems.

(A number of accredited installers in the Solar Choice installer network use Power-One Aurora inverters. Get a free comparison of solar quotes of the installers who operate in your area!)

The importance of choosing the right inverter

An inverter is essentially the ‘brain’ of any solar power system. Inverters convert the DC electricity produced by a system’s solar panels into grid- and appliance-compatible AC electricity. Inverters tend to have shorter lifetimes and warranties than solar panels–5 to 10 years as opposed to 25 or 30–and also tend to be the most expensive part of a system. Generally speaking, looking for a high-end inverter from a reputable manufacturer is arguably even more important than focusing on the quality of the system’s solar panel array. Indeed, a strategy of many Solar Choice customers is to opt for solar PV systems with mid-quality panels but high-quality inverters, to safeguard possible malfunction.

Power-One Aurora solar inverter range

Power-One Aurora 2kW outdoor inverter
Power-One Aurora 2kW outdoor inverter

Aurora Uno: Single-phase inverters for residential/smaller systems

Sizes available in Australia: 2kW (indoor/outdoor), 3kW (outdoor), 3.6kW (indoor/outdoor), 4.2kW (outdoor), 5kW (outdoor), 6kW (outdoor)

Download Spec Sheets:

2.0kW Outdoor (pdf)

2.0kW, 3.6kW Indoor (pdf)

3.0kW, 3.6kW, 4.2kW Outdoor (pdf)

5.0kW, 6.0kW Outdoor (pdf)

Aurora Trio: Three-phase inverters for commercial/larger systems

Sizes available in Australia: 10kW, 12.5kW, 20kW, and 27.6kW (outdoor)

Download Spec Sheets:

10kW, 12.5k5 (pdf)

20kW, 27.6kW (pdf)

Power-One Aurora Inverters: Points of Difference

–Transformerless operation for high efficiency: Peak Efficiencies of up to 97.7%, Euro efficiencies of up to 97.25%, depending on the model. (Read about types of inverter efficiency.)

–Broad range of transformerless (TL) inverters (What is a transformerless inverter?)

–High-speed, highly accurate MPPT  (What is MPPT?)

–Can be installed indoors or out

–Wide range of inverter sizes for flexibility in system design.

Component standards met/awards

-All models of Power-One Aurora inverters mentioned above are on the list of CEC-approved components

–CE mark– Power-One Aurora inverters are compliant with European Union regulations

Warranties

-5 year standard warranty

Other products by Power-One

Power-One manufactures a range of renewable energy products, including commercial-scale central inverters, micro-inverters for solar PV, wind power inverters, and solar system performance monitoring equipment.

© 2012 Solar Choice Pty Ltd

All images and spec sheets via Power-One

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James Martin II
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Comments

  1. What are the How the extended warranty’s on the 3.6 inverter and how much extra are they

    1. Hi Graeme,

      Best to contact Aurora/Power-One directly with this query (or the company who installed your system).

  2. Hi, I am an installer and have a 4.2kw aurora inverter and am looking at a device to install batteries and become a hybrid system. Do you guys have a product or can you recommend a product which is compatible with your inverter?

    Thanks

    1. Hi Jason,

      Thanks for commenting. First off I should note that we are not Fronius and also have no direct association with Fronius – this article is meant to be an informative article about their product offerings in Australia. Some of the solar installers in our network use Fronius inverters in their installations.

      It’s likely that the Fronius inverter you have is not ‘battery ready’ (Fronius’ Symo Hybrid inverters are their hybrid solar+battery line), so you’d probably be best installing a separate battery inverter with the battery bank. As long as you install this elsewhere on the AC-side of the wiring, it will be compatible with your existing inverter (read more: AC vs DC storage). We keep a list of hybrid and battery inverters in this article.

      Best of luck!

  3. Don’t buy Aurora – Ours failed last month, less than 50 days out of the 5 year warranty. ABB couldn’t have been faster saying they wouldn’t cover it BUT they were really fast to offer to sell me another. I’d have to have an IQ smaller than my shoe-size to waste more money on an Aurora, and I have small feet!

    If you are reading this and wondering whether or not to buy the Aurora, don’t do it. The product line is lousy, the service non existent and ABB are one of the least customer-focused companies around. That ticks every box for the “Best product to avoid at all costs” award if you ask me. Made in Italy or China – I can’t imagine why they might have failed, lol!

    look around, read real user reviews (not the paid advertising reviews) and you’ll see why you should avoid these like the plague they are. I’m going with a german inverter now and have a 10 year warranty… and I’ve made sure they have been around and supported for a long time.

    1. Hi Gordon,

      It’s unfortunate that you are having problems with your inverter. The feedback we generally receive on ABB/Power-One inverters is generally quite positive, however. It is common knowledge that a system’s inverter generally needs to be replaced every 5-7 years – warranties are in place for instances when an inverter fails before that point.

      Did you ever have any problems with them before the warranty expired?

  4. we have a pvi inverter with a clock reset failure … there is a watch battery inside the unit …. it needs to be replace if this happens to you .

    1. Hi Ricky,

      We’d recommend getting in touch with ABB/Power-One directly with your query. Their details are below:

      Phone: 1800 222 435 (24×7 within Australia)
      +61 2 9738 2277 (outside Australia)
      Fax: + 61 3 8577 7001

      1. Thanks for the phone numbers you have left … will keep them just incase we have another issue down the track further…
        We have the problem sorted [ i think for NOW ] . We found out that it is a 1\2 AA 3.6v battery .. Our clock reset fail has fixed itself after we followed the reset process .

  6. Now that Ingenero have gone Bust and i cant use thier solar monitoring web site with my Aurora 5kw system.

    How do i go about monitoring it ?

    Thanks

    1. Hi Dave,

      I’d recommend getting in touch with ABB/Power-One directly – they may have an independent portal which you can access.

  7. My Aurora Photovoltaic Inverter will not display data. Who do I contact in Perth to have the problem rectified?

    1. Hi Maurice,

      Since we wrote this article, Power-One (the maker of Aurora inverters) has been taken over by ABB (one of the world’s largest inverter companies). You can contact them about your issues on their website (click here for their contact form).

      Best of luck!

  8. Who do we talk to about our arora inverter failure
    we have pvi 3600-ud
    clock failure

    1. Hi Gerri,

      You would be best off contacting Power-One directly about this. Their Australian contact details are as follows:

      Aurora® Power Service (Australia) +61 2 9735 3111 / email: service.au@power-one.com

      Best of luck with your system.

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