Marking a new technology milestone, GE says it has deployed the first 1,500 VDC open-circuit (OC) central inverter for utility-scale solar power plants. The inverter is expected to help reduce overall system costs.
GE Energy's Power Conversion business developed, built and delivered its 1,500 VDC ProSolar central inverter technology to solar power plant system integrator Belectric. Belectric installed GE's inverter at its new solar power plant in southern Germany, utilizing PADCON's 1,500 VDC system technology.
The inverter allows operation at high DC voltages on panel level with lower DC currents while increasing the rated power for inverters. This can result in significantly lower costs for the technical DC infrastructure as well as the overall balance-of-system costs, according to GE.
Due to higher operating DC voltage and higher output with the same size as conventional ProSolar 1,000 VDC OC inverter units, the 1,500 VDC OC solution offers higher power density with the same small footprint. The liquid-cooled and improved power electronic topology ensures high efficiency, especially in partial load operations, GE adds.
