New Utility-Scale Solar PV Inverter Technology Could Help Stabilize the Grid (Germany Case Study)

February 21st, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

New inverter technology for ‘utility-scale’ solar projects can reportedly help (big-time) in stabilizing the electric grid 24/7.

“A new inverter technology allows inverters to act as phase-shift oscillators, thereby providing the grid with reactive power from solar plants even overnight – and lowering the cost of grid expansion considerably in the process,” Heiko Schwarzburger and Craig Morris of Renewables International write.

While I know most of us are more of a fan of decentralized solar power and the societal benefits that offers, this gives another boost to utility-scale solar as a key ingredient in the quick, reliable, and efficient switch to a 100%-renewable energy economy.

“With new central inverters, power plants with a capacity of 4 to 8 megawatts can help keep the regional grid stable,” says Bernhard Beck, head of Germany’s Belectric, one of the world’s largest providers of turnkey solar power plants. “For the past year, we have been using inverters that even provide reactive power at night, which provides us with completely new ways of stabilizing the grid.”

Here are more of the technical details from Renewables International:

The German grid is broken up into four levels. Ultra high-voltage lines have at least 380 kilovolts and high-voltage lines at least 110, whereas medium-voltage lines that regionally distribute power have 20 kilovolts – and local distribution grids (to which retail consumers are connected) have 400 volts and three phases. If too much energy is exported to the grid, the voltage increases along with frequency. Lines then began to overheat, and grid operators provide additional reactive power from central plants. Unfortunately, Germany has less reactive power in the south now that so many nuclear plants have been shut off there.

“But utility-scale solar can do the job,” Beck says. “A solar farm with hundreds of megawatts can produce enough reactive power to offset the grid-stabilizing effect of a nuclear plant.” The new inverter function with software from SMA can also be used in inverters for wind turbines. But small inverters for rooftop arrays cannot perform this function because the equipment would be too expensive.

Germany has a growing share of solar power, wind power, and power from biomass. But increasingly, reactive power – not real power – is turning out to be the bottleneck when it comes to stabilizing the grid. “If a large solar plant in Bavaria produces reactive power, ultra high-voltage lines to the North Sea might even be able to be utilized better,” Beck surmises. “In our estimation, it would then only cost half as much to expand the grid” because local reactive power and high-temperature cables would mean that the amount of power on the grid could be tripled without having to build a single new pylon.

Phases of power shift when the three phases go out of sync. By pushing the three phases back into rhythm, the grid can take up much more power. As Beck explains, “During the day, the solar array affects the phase shift via the energy it produces. At night or when the sky is cloudy, it then takes some of the real power off the grid and puts back a much larger phase shift with very low losses.”

Looks good to me. Thoughts?

Photo: solar PV farm in Germany via shutterstock

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Germany Clean Energy, germany renewabe energy, germany solar energy, solar inverters, solar stabilizing grid, stabilizing grid, utility scale solar inverters, utility-scale solar

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.