Renewable Energy

Renewable energy systems, such as solar and wind power, are driving the transition to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. These systems rely on advanced power conversion technologies to efficiently harness and deliver energy to homes, businesses, and the grid.

Solar panels with photovoltaic (PV) cells generate DC power which may be boosted to higher voltage levels to charge batteries or supply downstream systems. Similarly, wind turbines produce variable-frequency AC power, which is rectified and filtered to create a stable DC output for battery charging, auxiliary power, or grid integration.

Inductors play a vital role in ensuring efficient energy transfer and power quality in renewable energy systems. Typical applications include:

DC-DC Converters: Boost DC voltage to required levels for storage or downstream systems. Magnetics’ high performance powder cores are the most efficient choice for the inductors in these converters, whereas ferrite may be used in solar power inverters and battery storage systems to step up/down voltage efficiently.
Inverter Output Filters: Smooth AC output from inverters to ensure stable, grid-ready power using Magnetics powder cores.
Power Factor Correction (PFC) Inductors: Inductors using powder cores reduce PFC harmonics and improve efficiency.

Many Magnetics products can be found in renewable energy. Powder cores are widely used where high DC bias handling, soft saturation, and energy storage are needed. Examples include DC-DC converters, solar and wind inverters, PFC inductors, and output filter inductors. Ferrite and nanocrystalline cores are used primarily in high-frequency applications due to their low losses and high permeability. These applications may include transformers used in solar inverters or wind energy converters, EMI filters, and common mode chokes. Lastly, amorphous cores are widely used in medium-frequency applications such as grid-tied transformers and some PFC inductors.

Inverter Examples

Central Inverters

For high power central inverter designs, Magnetics® powder cores offer superior saturation and low core loss. XFlux and Kool Mu materials are available in large sizes, with large core areas to handle high power designs. Both are high saturation materials which make them good choices for high DC current designs. Kool Mu offers low core loss for designs with high ripple currents and/or frequencies above 20kHz.

String Inverters

The increased efficiency of string inverter designs can be boosted by Magnetics® premium powder core materials: High Flux and MPP. The 80% Nickel-Iron MPP material offers superior core loss performance in pure AC inductors without fringing losses. High Flux material, a 50% Nickel-Iron alloy, offers 1.5T of saturation where additional power handling capability is needed.

Microinverters

Magnetics® ferrites and economical powder core materials such as XFlux & Kool Mu are excellent choices for magnetic designs in microinverter systems. The various power ferrite materials (R, P, F, L, T) offer low core loss and are available in a wide selection of shapes & sizes. They are good choices where optimization & cost efficiency are key parameters. High permeability materials (J, W) are good choices for EMC filter designs.

Contact Magnetics regarding our solutions for Renewable applications.