Catch the sun

German researchers believe they have created a photovoltaic inverter that will make better use of the sun's energy.

Inverters change direct current from a solar cell array to alternating current, so that energy can be fed into public utility grids.

According to the

researchers who designed the inverter, the device has achieved a record efficiency rating. And greater efficiency enables photovoltaic systems to yield more energy.

The inverter uses a silicon carbide-based metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) — the first time such a transistor has been applied to a photovoltaic application.

Bruno Burger, head of the power electronics group at Fraunhofer, said the device had an efficiency rating of 98.5 per cent — 0.5 per cent higher than the previous best.

'Point five per cent might not look like much, but if an inverter has 98 per cent efficiency that means 2 per cent loss and we now have 1.5 per cent loss,' he said. 'If an inverter has a power rating of 5kW, it would normally lose 100W and we've now reduced that to 75W.'