What Inverters Work with Tigo MLPE? Virtually all of them.

Customers often ask us: What inverter can I pair with your MLPE?

The answer is virtually any inverter can work with Tigo MLPE. Tigo gives solar installers the freedom to choose their preferred inverter to pair with Tigo optimizers and rapid shutdown devices. This flexibility is a core part of our value proposition.

Benefits of working with any inverter

• Choose the inverter size and attributes you want across dozens of brands
• Get the latest features – choose from the most recent models available
• Less supply chain risk – if one inverter is delayed in manufacturing, shipping, etc., you can switch
• MLPE can be added to new projects easily and even retrofitted onto existing ones after they’ve been installed

Challenges of working with any inverter

Although Tigo MLPE can work with any inverter out there, we still want to ensure they are operationally compatible. So, years ago, we began testing our MLPE with inverter brands worldwide and issuing Compatibility Letters between specific inverters and Tigo MLPE. As a result, this year, we accumulated more than 50 compatibility letters from more than 40 different inverter brands. Each compatibility letter contained up to several hundred different inverter models in it.

This year, we compiled all the inverter models and put them into one single list with links to each compatibility letter. The complete, searchable, filterable list of inverter models can be found on our website here.

In addition, we created a separate page for every inverter brand in our database. If there’s a particular inverter you love working with, navigate to their dedicated page and see all the inverters that have been tested with Tigo MLPE.

How testing is performed

Inverter compatibility testing may be performed in 3 different ways:

1. The inverter manufacturer tests with our TS4s, and we monitor the system through the testing to determine compatibility.
2. The inverter manufacturer ships the inverter to Tigo, and we do the testing.
3. Many inverter models have been installed with the manufacturer, and we can check the monitoring to determine compatibility

Additional certifications

In addition to testing for operational compatibility, we also do UL PV Rapid Shutdown System (PVRSS) testing for many inverters. The UL PVRSS certification is required under the US National Electrical Code (NEC) to meet rapid shutdown requirements. You can view the entire list of UL PVRSS certified inverters with Tigo here.

One step further than UL PVRSS testing is integrating Tigo communication technology into the Inverter. Some inverter manufacturers have integrated the Tigo RSS Transmitter and joined the Tigo Enhanced program to let installers know that the inverters are PVRSS certified and plug and play with Tigo rapid shutdown devices.

The numbers: certifications and compatibility letters

We counted every single inverter model in each certification group, and below is the final count (as of May 13, 2022):

• Tigo Enhanced: 43– located on the UL PVRSS page
• PVRSS Certified: 231 – located on the UL PVRSS page
• Compatible: 771 – located on the inverter compatibility page
• Installed on 2+ sites: 2,182 – based on our installations monitored by Tigo Energy Intelligence

And this is just the beginning – we encourage installers to request inverters that they don’t see on the list. We’ll share the requests with the inverter manufacturers to add them to the testing queue.

Summary

Tigo takes great pride in testing inverters with our MLPE to ensure installers have access to a vast number of inverters when they choose Tigo for optimization and/or rapid shutdown. All inverters can be found here, and all the UL PVRSS certified inverters are on the UL PVRSS page.

If you have any questions on the subject, feel free to leave us a comment here.

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