As renewable energy standards (RES) require a certain amount of the energy produced to be generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar, many countries are working hard to reach these goals. To meet this challenge, there is growing demand for centralized solar power generation systems and ways to connect them to the distribution network.
Centralized solutions for generating solar energy can be split into three main functional blocks: the smart junction box which provides the key bypass functionality for a string of cells at the panel level, the string combiner box which provides the protection and monitoring functions of the solar panel, and the high-voltage multi-level string inverter that also implements the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm aimed at maximizing the transfer of energy from the panel, voltage adaptation and grid synchronization.
These high-power solutions must provide the highest efficiency in a compact size and weight while ensuring reliability over a long lifetime.
Semiconductor technologies and products are key enablers to competitive designs and we have a range of products and solutions including silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFETs and diodes, HV super-junction MOSFETs and IGBTs, application-specific analog products (ASSP) – including and IGBT and MOSFET gate drivers – and STM32 microcontrollers that can help developers meet these challenges.
