Commercial 3-Phase String Inverter Selector: Chint SCA25KTL, SolarEdge SE33.3K, SMA Tripower CORE1, Fronius Symo, Solis
Commercial 3-phase inverter head-to-head for the 20 – 60 kW class. kW range, voltage, phase configuration, MPPT count, communication, cabinet size, and US service network — spec-ready.
The 20 – 60 kW 3-phase string inverter is where 200 kW – 2 MW commercial rooftop solar actually lives. A 500 kW-DC rooftop is 10 – 20 3-phase inverters wired to a common AC combiner, not one central inverter. This guide compares the five brands PES Supply distributes directly in this class: Chint SCA25KTL, SolarEdge SE33.3K, SMA Tripower CORE1 50, Fronius Symo 24.0-3, and Solis 60K-5G-C&I. Every unit here is in the PES Louisville warehouse; commercial freight is quoted on a per-order basis.
PES's #1-selling commercial inverter is the Chint Power SCA25KTL — a 25 kW-AC 3-phase 208 V transformerless unit that sells at the lowest $/kW in the class while carrying Chint's global service infrastructure. This guide gives that model top billing in every table, then compares it head-to-head with the other four brands so you can pick the right unit for the site instead of the cheapest.
| Brand / model | AC output | Grid voltage | Phase config | PES stock status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chint SCA25KTL | 25 kW cont. | 208 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 3-wire + PE | Same-day (PES #1 seller) |
| Chint SCA-33KTL | 33.3 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 3-wire + PE | Same-day |
| SolarEdge SE33.3K-USR | 33.3 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 4-wire | Same-day |
| SolarEdge SE100K-USR | 100 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 4-wire | Special order (freight quote) |
| SMA Tripower CORE1 33 | 33.3 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 3-wire + PE | Same-day |
| SMA Tripower CORE1 50 | 50 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 3-wire + PE | Same-day |
| Fronius Symo 24.0-3 | 24 kW cont. | 208 V or 480 V | 3-phase 4-wire | Same-day |
| Fronius Symo Advanced | 10.0 / 12.5 / 15.0 / 20.0 / 24.0 kW | 208 V or 480 V | 3-phase 4-wire | Same-day |
| Solis 60K-5G-C&I | 60 kW cont. | 480 V (3-ph) | 3-phase 4-wire | Same-day |
Two practical wire-configuration notes:
- 3-phase 3-wire + PE (Chint, SMA CORE1) means the inverter presents A/B/C + safety ground; no neutral is needed. That's fine on a delta or ungrounded-wye service. It won't work on a service that requires the neutral to be bonded at the inverter.
- 3-phase 4-wire (SolarEdge, Fronius, Solis) presents A/B/C + N + PE — required on grounded-wye services and preferred by most commercial AHJs.
Chint SCA25KTL at 208 V and Fronius Symo 24.0-3 at 208 V are the two units that map cleanly onto 208 V 3-phase C&I services — common on small commercial rooftops (retail, storage, industrial park). Everything else in the table lives on 480 V.
| Model | MPPT channels | Strings per MPPT | Max PV input (kW-DC) | Voc max (Vdc) | CEC η |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chint SCA25KTL | 2 | 2 (4 total) | 32.5 kW | 1000 V | 98.0% |
| Chint SCA-33KTL | 2 | 3 (6 total) | 43 kW | 1100 V | 98.5% |
| SolarEdge SE33.3K-USR | 2 | N/A — optimizer-fed | 43.3 kW (DC/AC 1.30) | 1000 V | 98.6% |
| SMA Tripower CORE1 33 | 6 | 1 (6 total) | 43 kW | 1000 V | 98.4% |
| SMA Tripower CORE1 50 | 6 | 1 (6 total) | 75 kW | 1000 V | 98.5% |
| Fronius Symo 24.0-3 | 2 | 3 (6 total) | 36 kW | 1000 V | 98.0% |
| Solis 60K-5G-C&I | 5 | 2 (10 total) | 90 kW | 1100 V | 98.6% |
The SMA Tripower CORE1 is the standout on MPPT density — 6 independent MPPT channels in a single enclosure. On a commercial rooftop with racks running in different azimuths (a common outcome on flat roofs with ballasted racking around a mechanical penthouse), 6 MPPT eliminates the DC-string-matching bottleneck. Chint and Fronius sit at 2 MPPT — perfectly usable on a homogeneous rack layout but a design constraint on complex sites.
The Solis 60K-5G-C&I at 5 MPPT × 2 strings per MPPT = 10 strings gives similar flexibility at 60 kW.
| Brand | Onboard comms | Monitoring platform | Modbus TCP | SunSpec revenue-grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chint Power | RS485 + Ethernet | Chint Cloud | Yes | Optional plug-in |
| SolarEdge | Ethernet + Wi-Fi + Cellular | SolarEdge Monitoring Portal | Yes | Built-in |
| SMA | Ethernet + Modbus/SunSpec | Sunny Portal (powered by ennexOS) | Yes | Built-in |
| Fronius | Ethernet + Wi-Fi + Solar.web | Fronius Solar.web | Yes | Built-in (Symo Advanced) |
| Solis (Ginlong) | Ethernet + Wi-Fi + 4G optional | SolisCloud | Yes | Built-in on 5G-C&I |
All five brands hit the current 3-phase C&I baseline: Ethernet, Modbus TCP, SunSpec-compliant. SolarEdge and SMA have the deepest fleet-monitoring maturity for a service organization managing hundreds of sites. Fronius Solar.web has the best-in-class installer commissioning experience for individual jobs. SolisCloud is the newcomer and improves with every quarterly release.
| Model | H × W × D (in) | Weight (lb) | IP rating | Mounting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chint SCA25KTL | 22.8 × 21.7 × 8.7 | 59 lb | IP65 | Wall-mount, indoor/outdoor |
| SolarEdge SE33.3K-USR | 37.4 × 12.6 × 10.9 | 118 lb | IP65 | Wall-mount, outdoor rated |
| SMA Tripower CORE1 50 | 26.4 × 26.4 × 15.4 | 138 lb | IP65 | Free-standing (frame mount) |
| Fronius Symo 24.0-3 | 28.7 × 20.6 × 8.3 | 96 lb | IP66 | Wall-mount, outdoor rated |
| Solis 60K-5G-C&I | 25.6 × 24.4 × 10.6 | 84 lb | IP66 | Wall-mount, outdoor rated |
Chint SCA25KTL at 59 lb is the lightest 25 kW unit on the market — one installer can hang it. The SMA Tripower CORE1 50 at 138 lb is designed for two-person handling; SMA ships a lift kit with the 50 kW unit. Weight matters on rooftop staging where you're limited by the size of the roof hatch or the crane rental window.
| Brand | Standard warranty | Extended | US service center | Advance-ship RMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chint Power | 10 yr parts | 15 / 20 yr | Chint Power North America (Vancouver, WA) | Yes on registered accounts |
| SolarEdge | 12 yr parts | 20 / 25 yr | SolarEdge USA (Fremont, CA) | Yes (2-day) |
| SMA America | 10 yr parts | 15 / 20 yr Comfort Plus | SMA America (Rocklin, CA) | Yes |
| Fronius USA | 10 yr parts | 15 / 20 yr Plus | Fronius USA (Portage, IN) | Yes (Symo Advanced) |
| Solis (Ginlong) | 5 yr parts | 10 / 20 yr extended | Ginlong Solis USA (Sunset Park, TX) | Yes on registered |
All five brands maintain a US service center with commercial-account priority routing. PES auto-registers eligible commercial serial numbers to the installer of record at the point of shipping for verified contractor accounts, which lands you inside the extended warranty window from install date rather than purchase date.
200 – 400 kW rooftop on 208 V 3-phase service: Chint SCA25KTL is the volume answer.
The Chint SCA25KTL delivers 25 kW cont. at 208 V, weighs 59 lb, and hits the lowest $/kW in the 208 V C&I class. For a 300 kW-DC / 240 kW-AC rooftop you'd install 10 units on a common AC combiner. Chint's dual-MPPT works well with a homogeneous ballasted rack layout.
400 – 800 kW rooftop on 480 V, complex rack layout: SMA Tripower CORE1 50.
6 independent MPPT channels handle mixed azimuths (roof penthouse, HVAC shadows, mechanical setbacks) without needing to break arrays into homogeneous strings. Free-standing frame mount decouples from wall availability. 50 kW × 8-12 units clears 400-600 kW rooftops cleanly.
Site with existing SolarEdge on residential: SolarEdge SE33.3K-USR for portfolio consistency.
If the service organization already manages SolarEdge fleet in the mySolarEdge Portal, extending into commercial with SE33.3K keeps one monitoring stack. Requires SolarEdge optimizers on the array — that increases per-panel MLPE cost, but delivers panel-level monitoring end-to-end.
European-installer preference or specific technical selection: Fronius Symo 24.0-3.
Fronius Symo Advanced (10.0 through 24.0 kW) is the choice for shops that grew up on Fronius residential and want the same commissioning tooling in commercial. Snap-Inverter architecture makes field service repairs faster than swap-the-whole-unit.
60 kW+ single-unit density, best $/kW on 480 V: Solis 60K-5G-C&I.
Solis 60K-5G-C&I delivers 60 kW-AC in one enclosure with 5 MPPT × 2 strings per MPPT — 10 strings of design flexibility. Lower $/kW than SolarEdge SE100K at half the AC output; two Solis 60Ks cover 120 kW-AC of load with parallel scaling.
The Chint Power SCA25KTL is worth its own section: it's the #1 seller in the PES commercial 3-phase category, sitting at $16,081 average order value against roughly 25 kW-AC. The value proposition:
- $/kW at the low end of the class. Contractor pricing puts SCA25KTL below the comparable SolarEdge SE33.3K and SMA Tripower CORE1 33 on a straight $/kW-AC basis.
- Transformerless topology. 98.0% CEC efficiency, IP65 outdoor mounting, no transformer maintenance.
- 1000 Vdc string capability. You can build 20-panel strings at typical Voc-max temperature-corrected — reduces DC combiner count on larger arrays.
- Global service network. Chint Group (parent) is a Fortune Global 500 company; service infrastructure in the US operates from Vancouver, WA with 5–7 day RMA turnaround.
The SCA25KTL is not the right choice for every commercial site — 2 MPPT is a design constraint on mixed-azimuth roofs, and 208 V limits you to services that carry that supply. But for the typical 200 – 400 kW rooftop on a straightforward 208 V 3-phase service, no other brand in this class beats it on total installed cost.
Registered contractors — free calculators on the PES portal
- String Sizing Calculator — Voc/Vmp string voltage vs inverter Vdc-max, temperature-corrected per NEC 690.7.
- Compatibility Checker — live inverter + battery + panel compatibility against manufacturer-approved lists.
- Solar System Calculator — end-to-end kW-DC / kW-AC / battery sizing for a target daily kWh load.
- ROI Calculator — payback and IRR against your local rate schedule and financing.
- Voltage Drop Calculator · Load Balance Calculator
Register for the contractor portal → Free. Verified installers only.
What's the lowest-cost commercial 3-phase inverter in the 20 – 30 kW class?
The Chint Power SCA25KTL at 25 kW-AC / 208 V 3-phase sits at the lowest $/kW in the PES commercial catalog. It's a transformerless 98.0% CEC-efficient unit with 2 MPPT × 2 strings, 1000 Vdc PV input, and IP65 outdoor mounting at 59 lb. It's PES's #1-selling commercial inverter.
Do I need a neutral wire for these inverters?
It depends on the model. Chint SCA25KTL and SMA Tripower CORE1 present 3-phase 3-wire + PE (no neutral) — works on ungrounded-wye or delta services. SolarEdge SE33.3K, Fronius Symo, and Solis 60K-5G-C&I present 3-phase 4-wire (with neutral) — required on grounded-wye services and preferred by most AHJs.
Which model has the most MPPT channels for a mixed-azimuth roof?
The SMA Tripower CORE1 leads with 6 independent MPPT channels in a single enclosure. Solis 60K-5G-C&I has 5. Chint SCA25KTL, SolarEdge SE33.3K, and Fronius Symo sit at 2. For a homogeneous rack layout, 2 MPPT is fine; for a rooftop with mechanical penthouses, HVAC shadows, and mixed setbacks, 5–6 MPPT eliminates string-matching design constraints.
What DC/AC ratio should I design for on commercial 3-phase?
Commercial designs typically run 1.25 – 1.40 DC/AC — higher than residential (1.15 – 1.30) because the marginal $/kW-DC drops faster than the clipping loss cost grows. See the DC/AC ratio chart in our Solar Inverter Sizing Reference Guide.
Which brand has the most mature US service network?
SolarEdge and SMA both operate US-based service centers with dedicated commercial account routing (Fremont, CA and Rocklin, CA respectively). Fronius runs its US operation out of Portage, IN. Chint operates from Vancouver, WA. Solis operates from Sunset Park, TX. All five ship advance-replacement RMA on registered commercial accounts, but SMA and SolarEdge have the longest US commercial service history.
Can I parallel Chint SCA25KTL units for a 200 kW+ array?
Yes — 8 × SCA25KTL = 200 kW-AC, wired to a common AC combiner panel on the 208 V bus. PES pre-configures these in pallet-freight groupings; call the commercial desk after registering for a system-level BOM.
How do I open a contractor account and see live commercial pricing?
Register at axis.pesdistribution.com/portal-registration. Once verified you can pull real-time inventory, tier pricing, and string-sizing quotes for these commercial inverters directly from the portal.
Ready to spec a commercial 3-phase string inverter?
Direct-distributor pricing on EG4, SolarEdge, Enphase, Sol-Ark, Fronius, SMA, Solis, GoodWe, APsystems, Chint, Sungrow, OutBack, MidNite, Schneider, and Growatt inverters. Louisville-warehoused, pallet-freight quoted at checkout.
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