LONDON, November 21 /PRNewswire/ --

Quality leader Fronius International GmbH has been awarded the Frost Sullivan 2008 Best Practices Award for its development of the innovative and high performance Fronius IG Plus PV inverter series as well as for its outstanding service. With the development of this new product series, Fronius is setting new standards in the international inverter market.

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The Frost Sullivan Award for Product Quality Leadership is bestowed upon the company that has demonstrated superior quality control over its competitors in product manufacturing. Quality control is an essential element of satisfying customers, increasing buying behavior, and assuring long-term market survival.

Fronius IG Plus: Maximum earnings -- in any weather

Highest quality as well as complete customer satisfaction totally reflects the Fronius philosophy. Fronius has been successful in rolling out Fronius IG Plus inverters that combine ease of use with lasting quality and high energy output.

In addition to that, each and every Fronius IG Plus device comes along with Plus factors, such as:

+ Highest maximum efficiency of any HF device available on the market. + The automatic transformer switching function: Enables three efficiency peaks for a constant, high efficiency level over a wide input voltage range. + The MIX(TM) concept: This guarantees optimal earnings in partial load ranges and maximum service life: Several power modules operate together, as required, dividing up the work depending on the operating hours -- for example, they all work together in intense sunlight. + Because of their wide input voltage range, galvanic isolation, standard grounding option as well as precise MPP tracking feature (optimized Module Manager software), the Fronius IG Plus inverters work optimally with all module types, also especially with thin-layer modules. + Robust metal housing. UV-resistance and corrosion-protection enable them to be used both indoors and outdoors, e.g. below the solar modules. + Well thought out ventilation concept: Prevents dust formation within the inverter: + Easy installation: The connection area and the power modules are mounted separately from each other. This also eases servicing since only the power module area must be removed. The connection area including all cabling and configuration settings can remain untouched on the wall.

Low rate of defects in each batch of systems supplied, results in an extremely low amount of servicing required for Fronius inverters. The combination of the previously mentioned advantages, as well as the following reasons, lead to the decision that Fronius International GmbH is a worthy recipient of the 2008 Frost Sullivan Award for Product Quality Leadership in the European Inverter Market for Renewable Energy Systems:

+ Application of top-notch technology and manpower + A highly user-friendly and smart PV inverter product line + The lowest amount of breakdowns annually + First class post sales support to customers

About Frost Sullivan Best Practices Award

Frost Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts make use of many different methods in order to identify best practices in the industry.

Research Methodology Measurement Criteria

To choose the Award recipient, the analyst team tracks all products and research and development projects within the industry. This is accomplished through interviews with market participants, end-users, distributors, and extensive secondary and technology research. Products are compared and ranked on the industry's quality standards.

In addition to the methodology described, there are specific criteria used to determine final competitor rankings in this industry. The Award recipient has excelled based on criteria such as:

+ Lowest defect percentage per batch of units produced by suppliers in current base year + Product ability to fulfill customer needs, in terms of functionality and user friendliness + Lowest number of breakdowns or services required per year + Strong level of product support provided to end-users

About Fronius

Fronius develops, produces and distributes battery chargers, welding technology and inverters for photovoltaic systems worldwide. The Group has four production sites in Austria, the Czech Republic and Ukraine plus more than twelve sales subsidiaries in Europe and America -- of these three new subsidiaries in Mexico, Canada and Italy -- and more than 130 international representatives. The company employs 2221 employees worldwide, 1661 of whom are based in Austria.

Fronius had sales of EUR 298.5 million in 2007 with an export share of 88.2%. The investment rate is 16.8% and the RD rate is 6.8%. Fronius holds 469 patents. One third of all products sold are less than three years old.

For more information, please contact: Ms. Marina Klubescheidt, Tel.: +43-7242-241-2680 klubescheidt.marina@fronius.com http://www.fronius.com and/or Ms. Silke Inzinger, Tel.: +43-7242-241-2640 inzinger.silke@fronius.com http://www.fronius.com

Marina Klubescheidt, +43-7242-241-2680, klubescheidt.marina@fronius.com, or Silke Inzinger, +43-7242-241-2640, inzinger.silke@fronius.com, both of Fronius; Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081117/FSLOGO , AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org , PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com