Power Electronic Players to See Opportunities from Other Sectors

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Opportunities for power electronic players within the renewable energies sector, are not limited only to power converters and inverters. Indeed the companies also expand their business towards additional components needed for photovoltaic and wind systems as well as components and systems used in associated markets such as energy storage for example. In parallel, power electronic players also benefit from numerous synergies between different applications: some companies, such as Ingeteam, ABB, Siemens… that are covering several renewable energy industries, propose their solutions for different markets. Because of lot of synergies between these markets, standardized bricks are step by step more considered by the power electronic companies.

Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company demonstrates in its power electronics for renewable energies applications report, the sustainability of renewable energy markets, including PV and wind, and related business opportunities for power electronics companies. It also highlights the opportunities for power electronic companies in renewable energy and proposes an evaluation of the PV and wind inverters’ market.

The decrease in financial state support for photovoltaics (PV) and wind in most geographical markets combined with growing competition within the industry results in strong economic pressure on power device manufacturers. Indeed, despite a very high volume of components and devices sold the margins are often tight. Various strategies have therefore been developed by power electronic manufacturers. As shown in the new technology & market analysis from Yole, new technology solutions have been developed, based on the synergies between different applications, especially those based on DC current.

These include PV and battery electricity storage, PV and electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles charging. New technology solutions are sought to differentiate companies from their competitors by improving performance, cost, lifetime and reliability. Companies like ABB, GE and Ingeteam have also identified the synergy between different renewable electricity sources, and also with battery storage systems, to enlarge their activities into new related markets. Battery electricity storage systems could solve the intermittency issues related to the electricity generated by a large number of PV and wind systems.

“The offering of the same and similar products in different markets helps to reduce the cost of development and cost of commercialization for new technology solutions”, comment Dr Milan Rosina, Senior Analyst for Energy Conversion & Emerging Materials at Yole. For example the use of “power electronic bricks” such as power stacks helps to easily build complete systems according to different regional specifications, system sizes or customer demands. The development of tidal turbines is another example of how experience gained from installations at sea and from offshore wind turbines can help to develop new products.

Companies like Ingeteam have understood the importance of rapidly increasing their presence in new markets. Therefore they have opened manufacturing facilities in countries with a high potential for renewable energy installations. “New opportunities have also arisen for system integrators and companies developing complete solutions for system control and energy flow management”, adds Mattin Grao Txapartegi, Technology & Market Analyst, Power Electronics at Yole.