Cost Reduction of PV-Inverters with SiC-DMOSFETs

Energy will become more and more expensive in future. Thus to counteract this trend and keep energy affordable, there either must be opened up new resources or the available resources must be used more efficient. This can be achieved by reduced energy consumption and low-loss generation. A crucial point in providing electrical power with grid-feeding PV-Systems is the efficiency of the PV-Inverter. Its fixed costs are approximately 8 % of a PV-Plant (up to 10 kW). This percentage can be neglected, if it is compared with the financial gain that can be made during the lifetime of the PV-Inverter. Thus investing in a high-value PV-Inverter is worthwhile. The switching and conduction losses of the transistors and diodes in an inverter are decisive for its efficiency. Here, one can profit from the properties of MOSFETs based on Silicon Carbide.