Sungrow and TÜV Rheinland have co-issued PID Zero, described as an anti-PID solution for residential PV systems, according to an announcement published by the inverter maker on 27 July 20221. The company states that the solution has been applied at scale in residential settings1.
Potential induced degradation, or PID power loss in solar panels, arises from long exposure to high temperature, high humidity and dust, and the announcement states that permanent PID leads to a power generation loss of up to 30%1. The company says conventional practice in residential systems is to use integrated or external recovery modules that raise the PV negative to ground voltage at night, when the system is off grid; it states that this approach cannot effectively suppress PID during the day when the inverter is connected to the grid, nor suit a PV plus storage system that runs around the clock1.
Sungrow says PID Zero uses a patented mirror boost topology and an intelligent control algorithm to hold PV+ and BUS+ at equal potential, which it states brings the PV negative to ground voltage closer to the positive electrode during boosted inverter operation and so suppresses PID1. The company states the solution provides 24-hour anti-PID protection, enabling PID suppression during the day and PID recovery at night, and that no extra recovery module is needed1. It adds that the system calculates the energy required for recovery and boosts voltage accordingly, which it says avoids both incomplete recovery from insufficient boosted voltage and system losses from overly boosted voltage1.
"Last year, TÜV Rheinland performed thorough on-site verification and technical review on PID Zero, and the result shows that PV and hybrid inverters equipped with the PID-Zero solution can suppress PID during the day and repair module damages at night, ensuring long life and efficient operation of the modules."
The announcement states that the SG2.0-10RS PV inverter and the SH3.0-6.0RS PV hybrid inverter carry PID Zero technology and have been delivered to a number of countries and regions including Europe, the Asian Pacific and Latin America1. No UK-specific availability, pricing or warranty terms are given in the announcement, and no independent test data beyond the TÜV Rheinland review is reported1. Sungrow's residential inverter range is covered separately on this site.
Why it matters for households
Module degradation reduces the output a home's array delivers over its life, so a system that loses up to 30% of generation to permanent PID would take longer to repay its cost and would supply less power to the home1. The claim that PID Zero works during daylight hours, rather than only overnight, is relevant to households whose systems export or self-consume through the day, and to those with battery storage, where the announcement states the PID risk is greater because the system operates continuously1. For a household weighing solar PV options, the practical question is whether the inverter fitted to a proposed system carries this protection, since the announcement ties the feature to specific inverter models rather than to panels1.
What happens next
The announcement gives no dated next steps, no UK launch date and no timetable for wider rollout1.