Over the years, improvements in home solar power systems have made them less expensive, more efficient and easier to install than older systems. One of the latest technological improvements is a device called a solar micro inverter and this may prove to be a major upgrade to the standard solar panel.
One of the challenges with the long runs of wires between the solar panels and the inverter, there is a lot of power lost over distances. Plus a low voltage DC current has more loss than a higher voltage AC current. To date this loss was just tolerated as part of the system and adjustments had to be made to generate more power to compensate for the loss.
The new solar micro inverter is the latest answer. Instead of having one large inverter that handles all of the conversion from DC current to AC current for the home, these new solar panels have a solar micro inverter installed in each of the panels that does this conversion in the panel. This solar micro inverter takes the DC current generated by the solar panel, and converts it directly to AC current before leaving the panel. Because higher voltage AC electricity has a lot less loss over the long wire run into your house, you get a more efficient conversion and can use a larger portion of the power you are generating with your solar panels. This also makes it scalable for a more affordable way to increase your rooftop power production. There’s no need to worry about having to upgrade your inverter. Even though these new solar panels or adding micro inverters to the older panels are a little more expensive than the older systems, eliminating the cost of the larger inverter makes the total system cost about the same.
By David Fambrough, Mouser Electronics
For an endless amount of clean energy, Europe and the rest of the world only need to look to the sun. The photovoltaic market appears to be very sunny, as innovation and lower technology costs continue to help light the way.
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Contributed by TDK-EPC
Photovoltaic installations are set up in exposed locations such as roofs, and increasingly also in open spaces. This makes them susceptible to high risks due to overvoltages, which are increased still further by the long leads between the solar modules and inverters...
