When planning a solar installation, one of the aspects that must be taken into account in order to get the most out of the energy generated by the  photovoltaic modules is the maximum current intensity of each module.

In the current race to create solar panels of greater power, the amperage of the maximum current is also increasing, with the problems that this can cause with  solar inverters.

Matching of solar panels

When installing  solar panels in parallel, the current intensity must be taken into account as an important factor, and we must make sure that all the photovoltaic modules have the same or similar current. 

This is necessary since the inverter will take the lowest of them as a reference for all the panels installed in that series. Therefore, if, for example, five panels are placed with a current voltage of 12A and three panels with a voltage of 9A, the inverter will equal them all at 9A, resulting in a great loss of energy.

This is independent for each string of the inverter, so, using the previous case, it would be more convenient to place the five 12A panels on one string and the three 9A panels on the other, if the inverter has two inputs.

Compatibility between inverters and solar panels based on current intensity

Solar inverters have a maximum input current per string, this current can range from 10A to very high figures for the most powerful inverters.

The problem is that most inverters for small or medium-sized installations are lower amperage, which means that they must be paired with lower power panels, since if we do it with higher power panels much of that energy will be lost.

Installing high power panels, for example 530W, with a maximum current of about 17A, and an inverter with a maximum current of 10A, will overload the inverter to the point of burning it out, which can be dangerous.