The balcony power plant scandal surrounding faulty inverters, primarily from Chinese manufacturer Deye, continues. The Federal Network Agency has now made a statement and bad news for everyone who uses a Deye inverter.
Federal Network Agency: Certificate for Deye inverters invalid
Anyone who owns or wants to register a balcony power plant with a Deye inverter could run into real problems. The Chinese manufacturer has the problems with the inverters, where a safety-related relay is missing, downplayed and would simply like to retrofit them. But it probably won’t be that easy. The heise colleagues have received an official statement from the Federal Network Agency, which does not read well at all.
When asked about the retrofit solution proposed by Deye, the Federal Network Agency said the following: “This cannot be confirmed by the Federal Network Agency at this time. The proposed corrective action represents a significant change to the product.” The spokesman for the authority also said that the manufacturer had to “go through a new conformity assessment procedure for this and thus prove that the basic requirements of the Radio Equipment Directive or the Radio Equipment Act, including the protection of human health and safety, are complied with.” (Source: heise).
The The previously issued certificate is therefore invalidbecause a component is missing, and the retrofit solution can no longer be used with the certificate that has already been issued because the retrofit is not insignificant. The The operating license has thus expired. A real super meltdown for the customers.
This is what you need to know about balcony power plants:
Can you no longer use Deye inverters?
That is the big question that many owners of Deye inverters are currently asking themselves. Although the Federal Network Agency has confirmed that the operating license has expired, but a ban has not yet been pronounced. The network operators could become spoilsports here. Anyone who still wants to have a Deye inverter approved could fail there because the certificate is no longer valid.
Whether this happens always depends on whether the Federal Network Agency notifies the network operators and recommends this step and how well informed the network operators themselves are at the moment.
It is also currently unclear whether the Chinese manufacturer Deye has already initiated the certification of the retrofit solution or whether there is a timetable for this. Opposite heise wanted himself the Chinese company initially no longer comment.
Now everyone just has to hope that a customer-friendly solution will be found and that everyone can continue to use their balcony power plants. According to the Federal Network Agency, this is currently on the brink. At Deye alone, potentially 400,000 devices are affected.