Mersen: Looking forward to the coming of the era of photovoltaic inverter revolution

Mersen, which has always been famous for its leading technology in electrical components, recently accepted the "Small Box Challenge" from Google. They will participate in the development of a small inverter for distributed rooftop photovoltaic power generation. Compared with ordinary photovoltaic inverters on the market, the size of this inverter being designed and developed is only one twentieth of the latter. Mersen is responsible for the development of the heat dissipation components of the inverter throughout the challenge.

The application of photovoltaic inverters in the market is mainly divided into two fields: centralized large-scale ground power stations and distributed power stations. In terms of distributed power stations, the size of inverters used in power stations above 1MW is about 1.8m*1.5m, while the string inverters used on roofs are roughly 5-50KW and about 0.5m*0.5m in size. The inverter developed by Mersen is only about the size of an iPhone 6. This change is like the transformation of an old desktop computer into a lightweight Pad.

The photovoltaic inverter that Mersen participated in designing this time is mainly used in household rooftop power generation systems. Regarding the difficulty of this challenge, Chen Yue, power electronics product manager, told reporters that the challenge is to design a small inverter that is 10 times smaller than the current products on the market without reducing the original power. Photovoltaic inverters will now develop towards a more intensive and smaller size, that is, the power density is getting higher and higher. For example, a 100-watt bulb with a diameter of 1 meter, which was not hot originally, now needs to be reduced to a diameter of 5 cm, and the surface will definitely be very hot. The core of the photovoltaic inverter is the semiconductor switch (IGBT), which is the core component of the entire inverter process. It converts AC and DC power into each other by high-speed opening and closing circuits. Because it is a high-speed movement, a lot of heat is generated. If the space becomes smaller and the power remains unchanged, the heat will accumulate and the temperature will continue to rise to a very high level, which will be very dangerous and even cause the product to explode. Therefore, the heat dissipation problem is the main technical bottleneck that restricts the size of the inverter to become smaller.

陈悦说参加谷歌发起的这个挑战赛，尽管主要是北美区的同事在负责，但对于整个集团来说，都是一个非常“提气儿”的事。而美尔森的同事也都摩拳擦掌想挑战一下技术的可能性，如果这么小的逆变器可以诞生，那么对于整个光伏行业都有可能是一个颠覆。美尔森一直是以技术领先著称的公司，这次挑战赛也能够提升美尔森在光伏行业的知名度。

As a supplier of components such as fuses and heat sinks, Mersen's specialty is fuses and protection components mainly based on DC switches. Mersen is widely recognized and widely used in the photovoltaic industry in Europe and the United States. Shortly before the start of the 2015 SNEC exhibition, they had just won an order from Clemessy, a branch of the French construction giant Effiage, becoming the electrical supplier of the largest photovoltaic power station in Europe. Starting in October this year, Mersen will begin to supply low-voltage electrical protection components for this photovoltaic power station near Bordeaux, including low-voltage switches, fuses and fuse bases, totaling more than 200,000 components. The annual power generation of this power station is equivalent to the annual power consumption of the entire city of Bordeaux.

Although he agrees that "distributed photovoltaic power generation has broad prospects", Chen Yue joked that Mersen's power electronic module products are currently focused on large-scale ground power stations with high difficulty, especially ground power stations under extreme natural conditions. From a technical perspective, if Mersen's power electronic technology is to focus on distributed power generation, it is a bit like "waving a big knife to chop mosquitoes". If the "small box" inverter of this challenge can be successful, and even mass-produced and integrated, it can greatly change the market of household distributed photovoltaics.

Whether it is distributed photovoltaic power generation or centralized ground power stations, electrical component expert Mersen is very optimistic about the prospects of China's photovoltaic market. Wang Li, China Marketing Manager of Mersen Electrical Protection Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., told reporters that starting this year, Mersen will increase its investment in the Chinese photovoltaic market. In addition to working hard on market promotion, Mersen also cooperates with strong agents to expand channels in the industry market.

In fact, Mersen has always been paying attention to the new energy field. In the European and American markets, they have cooperated with Mercedes-Benz's new energy vehicles for many years, providing them with laminated templates. Recently, they have also cooperated with Tesla to provide them with fuses.

It is reported that other companies participating in Google's "Little Box" Challenge include Canada's TM4 and PRIMES. TM4 is mainly responsible for the design of inverters and transistor gate drivers, PRIMES mainly provides integrated design of power chips, and Mersen is responsible for the heat dissipation components. The results of the challenge will be announced in January 2016. Let's wait and see!