Featured in Gigawatt club continues to grow – 07-2019

Transistor transition

In pursuit of a lower levelized cost of energy for the next generation of inverters, some manufacturers have turned to acquiring considerably more expensive semiconductors. While this may sound like a misstep at first, the trick could be pulled off — though not easily, and not always — yet.

By

Marian Willuhn

05 Jul 2019

Image: SMA

A walk around any large trade show floor nowadays shows that all well-renowned inverter manufacturers have reached efficiency ratings of greater than 98%. “Efficiency is not really an issue anymore today — further cost reduction is what most manufacturers are after,” says Marco Jung, Head of Department Converter and Drive Technology with Fraunhofer IEE.To lower …

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