In the past two years, the development of the new energy market has been booming, especially the photovoltaic and wind energy markets. According to statistics from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, from 2017 to 2022, the global installed capacity of photovoltaics increased from 102GW to 230GW, with an average annual compound growth rate of 1766%, and the cumulative installed capacity of PV in the world reached 1,156GW by the end of 2022. In 2022, the construction of large bases and distributed photovoltaic applications in China's photovoltaic industry will steadily increase, and the newly installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 87GW, a year-on-year increase of 5913%, with a cumulative installed capacity of 39261gw。
Photovoltaic inverters, which are the core components of solar photovoltaics, have also developed rapidly, and the concentration is also very high. According to Wood Mackenzie, the world's top 10 PV inverter manufacturers accounted for 86% of the market share in 2022, an increase of 4% from 2021.
Figure: Shipments and year-on-year growth rate of the world's top 10 inverter manufacturers from 2020 to 2022 (GW, %)
From the statistics of the agency, it can be seen that the top inverter manufacturers in 2022 include Huawei, Sungrow, Jinlang Technology, Growatt, GoodWe, SMA, Power Electronics, Sineng Electric, Aishiwei, Shouhang New Energy, etc. Most of these enterprises are domestic enterprises.
At present, there are many manufacturers of inverters, in addition to the top 10, there are also foreign Solaredge, Tesla, Enphase, Fimer (ABB), Schneider Group, etc., as well as domestic Chint Electric, SolaX Energy, TBEA, Crestec, Kehua Data, Keboda, etc.
This article will focus on what electronic components will be used in photovoltaic inverters, and who are the main manufacturers.
Photovoltaic inverter electronics industry chain
In a typical solar inverter, a DC-DC stage that is connected to a solar panel and enhances the inverter's input voltage so that it can feed power into the grid tends to have Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT).and a full bridge connected to the grid for DC-AC.
Figure: Typical frame diagram of a string inverter (**ST).
As can be seen from the typical frame diagram of ST's string inverter above, the inverter needs to use power devices such as IGBT and MOSFET, MCU main control chip, driver chip, magnetic components such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, current sensors, DC switches, AC connectors, DC connectors, radiators, connectors and other electronic components.
Because the main function of the PV inverter is to convert the direct current generated by the PV panel into alternating current, which is convenient for people to use in daily life, or to be integrated into the grid. Therefore, he needs to use power semiconductors, such as IGBTs, MOSFETs, etc.
Now, with the rise of third-generation semiconductors and the increasing demand for power and efficiency, traditional IGBTs and MOSFETs are somewhat unable to meet the system requirements, while third-generation semiconductor devices such as SiC and GaN are beginning to emerge in inverter applications and are likely to become popular.
In addition, the purpose of a solar inverter is to extract maximum power from solar panels and feed clean energy into the grid. To ensure this, the power stage voltage and current must be accurately sampled, and pulse-width modulation (PWM) needs to be accurately generated for the power switches in DC-DC and DC-AC. All of this requires the assistance of the MCU. In addition, the MCU also needs to be responsible for the monitoring and protection functions of the inverter circuit such as over-temperature, over-voltage, and under-voltage, as well as some intelligent functions, such as communication with the outside world, data recording, human-computer interaction, etc.
The main electronic device manufacturer of photovoltaic inverter
As mentioned earlier, the core of the inverter is the power device, and the inverter generally has high safety requirements, so the power device it uses is also very demanding. In order to meet the market demand, general inverter manufacturers will give preference to overseas leading companies, such as Infineon, Mitsubishi Electric, Fujifilm, Toshiba, and ST, onsemi and other international semiconductor companies. 
However, since 2021, chips, IGBTs and other products have been in short supply, and the product quality of domestic power device manufacturers has become better and better, and it has begun to be accepted by customers and the market. Now, many inverter manufacturers have begun to increase the proportion of domestic IGBT.
According to the visit, the performance indicators of the photovoltaic application scenarios of the products of domestic IGBT manufacturers within 35kW basically meet the needs and can be used in the global household photovoltaic market. However, in some high-power inverter applications, the stability of domestic IGBTs needs to be further confirmed. The good news is that the high-power inverters on some domestic power station projects have also begun to use domestic IGBT products.
Domestic IGBT and MOSFET power devices** manufacturers include Star Semiconductor, Silan Microelectronics, CRRC Times, Hongwei, Yangjie, BYD, Huawei Electronics, and China Resources Micro. According to public information, Star has a relatively high proportion of low-power products, and is also used more in high-power centralized inverters, and Sungrow uses Star's IGBT module products in inverter applications of 500KW and above. Silan Micro is mainly a low-power product, and has also begun to supply Sungrow, Huawei and other enterprises. The IGBTs of Silan Micro and Macro Micro are used more in Huawei and GoodWe. Some of our products are also used in photovoltaic inverters. At the same time, these manufacturers are also able to provide SiC products for inverter manufacturers.
In terms of MCUs, TI's C2000 series MCUs were all the rage in inverter applications, and now with the rise of microinverters, some manufacturers have begun to use 32-bit MCUs with ARM cores as the main controller. Therefore, TI, NXP, ST, Microchip, Infineon, Renesas and other foreign manufacturers have become the main control MCUs. In addition, domestic MCU manufacturers such as GigaDevice have also begun to enter the inverter market and have been recognized by customers.
In terms of connectors, because the inverter is easy to accelerate the aging of components in the continuous current bearing, the high electrical and mechanical performance of the connector is particularly important, and at the same time, under outdoor conditions, animal impacts, weather influences, etc., put forward higher requirements for the anti-interference ability of the new energy system. That is to say, the connector selected for the inverter needs to cope with complex environments such as corrosion resistance and leakage prevention, and the safety performance requirements are high. At present, the first foreign companies include Amphenol, Tyco Electronics, Samtec, TTI, Yazaki, Hirose Electric and other manufacturers. The domestic leading companies include Ruida, Kuike Electronics, Yonggui Electric, ECT, DEREN Electronics, Laimu Shares, Weifeng Electronics, etc.
In terms of current sensors, the main foreign manufacturers are Lyme, Wacker, Murata, Honeywell, Allegro, etc., and the domestic manufacturers are mainly Ningbo Jincheng, Nanjing Zhongxu, Shitemei, Ankerui, etc.
In terms of magnetic components such as inductors, the main domestic manufacturers are Jingquanhua, Click and Igor. Among them, the largest sales share of Jingquanhua's magnetic components is Huawei, followed by Sungrow;Click accounts for more than 10% of the world's inverter magnetics;Igor's customers are mainly Huawei and Sungrow, and its global market share is about 10%.
Among the leading manufacturers of photovoltaic system lightning protectors, there are Phoenix, Cooper, Cidel of France, etc., and domestic manufacturers mainly include Zhongguang, Shenzhen Haipengxin, Shenzhen Xinwei, etc.
In terms of cooling fans, foreign companies mainly include EBM-Papst, C, Minebea, Japan's Sanyo, Nidec, etc., and domestic companies mainly include Sanju, Jianhuai and Saiji.
In terms of resistors and capacitors, foreign companies mainly include EPCOS, KEMET, NICHICON, WIMA, etc., and domestic companies mainly include Xiamen Farah, Chuangge and EACO.
Conclusion
Since many of the head enterprises of inverter manufacturers are domestic enterprises, the expansion of their market has also well driven the development of the domestic upstream industry chain, such as the products of overseas first-class manufacturers in the past, but now there are basically domestic first-class companies in the upstream industry chain, and their proportion is becoming larger and larger.
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