Renewable Energies Are Generating New Business Opportunities for Power Electronic Companies

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The massive deployment of renewable electricity sources namely photovoltaics (PV) and wind is generating new business opportunities, especially within the power electronic industry. Indeed, according to Yole Développement’s analysts, the demand for PV and wind inverters is growing and the related market should exceed 152 GW by 2021. The impact is not limited only to power converters and inverters. Indeed power electronic companies can take benefit of this growth by providing additional components such as protection devices, electrical connections for photovoltaics and wind systems; and also components and systems used in associated markets (transmission & distribution, energy storage…). According to Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, the renewable energy business is globally a sustainable market.

Yole released this month a new technology and market analysis dedicated to the development of renewable energy sources and their impact on the power electronic industry. Entitled “Opportunities for Power Electronics in Renewable Electricity Generation”, this report proposes an overview of sources, drivers, barriers and synergies with the power electronic players. Yole’s analysts present the main technology needs in PV and wind markets as well as related market trends and key figures.

“Under this new analysis, we demonstrate the sustainability of renewable energy markets including PV and wind, and related business opportunities for power electronics companies”, explains Dr Milan Rosina, Senior Analyst for Energy Conversion & Emerging Materials at Yole.

When considering the sustainable development of new electricity generation capacity and the advantages and drawbacks of different renewable electricity sources, PV and wind energy are today viewed as the most promising choice for the foreseeable future. “Marine energies such as tidal turbines, today at the nascent stage, might represent a promising alternative in the longer term”, adds Mattin Grao Txapartegi, Technology & Market Analyst, Power Electronics at Yole. The opportunities for power electronic players in renewable energy sources are represented by power converters/inverters used in PV systems, wind turbines and tidal turbines. However, as shown in the report, the opportunities for power electronics are not limited to power conversion devices. Power electronic companies can also grow their business by providing additional components needed for PV and wind systems. Dr Rosina comments: “These include protection devices, busbars and connectors, and components and systems used in associated markets, for example electricity transmission and distribution (T&D), DC microgrids and battery inverters for energy storage solutions.”

PV and wind are relatively mature technologies, with a large existing market, both in terms of annual installations as well as in total installed capacity. New PV and wind installations will continue to be driven mainly by individual countries’ objectives to reduce CO2 emissions from electricity generation power plants, for example to reduce air pollution. The record levels for LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) from PV installations, such as the electricity price of $58.5/MWh announced recently for a 200 MW PV power plant to be built in Dubai, clearly show that electricity generated by large PV power plants in some regions can compete with conventional fossil-energy power plants. The economic competitiveness of PV and onshore wind opens the door to a future sustainable market without subsidies.