Ten technology trends for solar PV systems
Despite the rapid expansion of photovoltaic (PV) installations worldwide, the evolving power infrastructure faces five major challenges, says Dr. David Zhao, Senior Vice President of Chinese solar power pioneer Sungrow.
These challenges cover the supply chain security, clean energy consumption, power system stability, resilience to load variability, and cost management. This means the renewable energy and storage sector is going through a period of intense accelerated growth.
As of December 2024, Sungrow has installed 740 GW of power electronic converters worldwide, making it the world’s largest shipper of PV inverters.
- Sungrow claims world’s most powerful strong inverter
- Solar inverter hits 99% efficiency with SiC modules
Zhao identified ten crucial technological trends essential to consider for this growth.
- High Density and High Efficiency
With the declining costs and increased localization of third-generation wide-bandgap semiconductors, inverters are progressively incorporating Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices. Inverters are making use of advanced control algorithms, increased computing power and novel thermal packaging technologies to significantly boost the power density and efficiency of equipment. The 2000V SiC modules are key to designing 1500V string inverters with higher efficiency.
- Development of High-Voltage and High-Power Systems
Inverter single-unit power units undergo a major improvement cycle every two to three years, with DC voltage moving toward 2000V. The world’s first 2000V DC photovoltaic system in China’s Shaanxi province reduces the overall cost of the energy produced by USD cent 0.55 per watt compared to 1500V systems.
- Grid Forming
Grid-forming technologies are becoming essential to ensure a flexible, reliable, and resilient power system. This requires capabilities such as flexible inertia support, wide-frequency oscillation suppression, enhanced continuous high/low voltage ride-through, microsecond-level voltage construction, adaptive harmonic management, rapid off-grid debugging, seamless switch between on-grid and off-grid modes, and gigawatt-scale project black-start technology.
- Digitalization and AI Empowerment
Digitalization and AI are revolutionizing the entire lifecycle of PV plants, boosting both reliability and operational efficiency. AI training techniques are used for inverters to create a sophisticated AI-driven battery management system.
This system constantly tracks and analyzes multiple parameters of battery cell states, such as temperature, current, voltage, and pressure. By doing so, it enables real-time health assessments, offers early alerts for cells showing signs of potential issues, and prevents the onset of thermal runaway, significantly improving the safety and performance of PV installations.
- Secure and Reliable Systems
Systems are now being designed to last 30 years, and Zhao identified more than a dozen advanced designs and technologies integral to system security and reliability, including modular design, multi-tier active fault alarms, arc detection, and shutdown mechanisms.
- Topology Innovation
Topology innovation plays a crucial role in enhancing power conversion efficiency. In 2018, Sungrow spearheaded a major R&D project and developed the world’s first 6MW 35kV Solid State Transformer based (SST-based) PV inverter. This inverter replaced traditional low-frequency transformer with a high-frequency one, achieving an overall maximum efficiency of 98.5%.
- High-Precision Simulation
For different global scenarios and grid conditions, system-level modelling and simulation capabilities are needed to mimic the performance of solar, wind, and storage systems in on-grid/off-grid and steady-state/transient processes. As simulation systems evolve, they will increasingly approximate real-world conditions, significantly shortening inverter and power system development cycles while reducing costs.
- Virtual Power Plants
Virtual power plants (VPPs) leverage internet technologies to aggregate distributed PV, energy storage, and loads into a unified entity for grid dispatch. VPPs optimize the energy use, reduce grid congestion and negative pricing and enable control in patches for grid ancillary services, ensuring rapid response and grid stability.
This significantly reduces grid construction and operational costs. Real-time monitoring and demand forecasting means VPPs can guide users to optimize their electricity consumption, and, by doing so, enhance supply reliability.
- Source-Grid-Load-Storage-Carbon Integration
Zhao is also proposing the integrated management of source-grid, load-storage-carbon systems. Sungrow is providing integrated solutions for the world’s largest 2.2GW wind-PV-storage-hydrogen multi-energy complementary microgrid project in Saudi Arabia. 2025 will mark the beginning of zero-carbon parks, with source-grid-load-storage-carbon integration becoming the preferred solution.
- Green Hydrogen, Ammonia, and Methanol
The final element is meeting the global demand for green hydrogen using renewable energy-based electrolysis. Decoupling power generation from hydrogen production systems allows for the remote production of hydrogen through power transmission.
Hydrogen production rectifiers, designed with fast dynamic response capabilities, are adept at managing the power fluctuations inherent in renewable energy sources. These features make them well-suited for use in large-scale renewable hydrogen production facilities and central hydrogen production stations. This led the company to set up a dedicated electrolyser development team in Europe in 2023.
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