Canada-based manufacturer of single-phase microinverters SPARQ Systems has signed a manufacturing and supply agreement with Jio Things, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms (JPL), to develop, collaborate with and distribute microinverters in India.

The long-term partnership will also enable SPARQ  to incorporate its microinverters, which are commonly used in solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, into Jio Things’ solutions globally. The agreement forms a framework for both companies to collaborate on innovation and development of new products.

“It is a tremendous opportunity for SPARQ to be able to partner with Jio Things. We expect the combination of Jio’s scale and technology leadership and SPARQ’s software-centric design to enable large-scale manufacturing of microinverters at a competitive cost. In this way, the collaboration will allow us to offer a high-performance solution at a low cost,” said Praveen Jain, CEO of SPARQ.

SPARQ manufactures lightweight, low-cost, single-phase microinverters that are designed for residential and commercial solar electric applications.

As a developer of a proprietary PV solution, the agreement provides SPARQ  with certain product margins that both companies have agreed upon.

Jio Things is the provider of end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, which SPARQ stands to leverage through this agreement.

“We believe that this is a transformative agreement for SPARQ. It is a tremendous endorsement of our unique technology to have been selected as a technology partner to one of the world’s largest and most innovative companies,” said Ravi Sood, chairperson at SPARQ.

Under the agreement, SPARQ will enlist a third-party contract manufacturing base in India to manufacture its microinverters.

“We look forward to contributing to Jio’s efforts to deliver innovative products and solutions to the market at prices and volumes that we expect will fundamentally alter industry dynamics,” added Sood.

In December 2023, Mercom India hosted a webinar titled “Optimal Sizing of PV Inverters for Robust Performance in High Ambient Temperatures,” where industry experts discussed the factors involved in optimally sizing solar PV inverters for diverse locations and temperatures and achieving higher performance.

Mercom recently reported on how solar inverter prices have been on the rise, with crucial components such as semiconductor chips in short supply globally, and compounding this challenge is the acute shortage in the supply chain of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), another essential inverter component.