inverter degradation

[1Plasmon]

Hello,

I will appreciate if you could give me some insight on the rate of degradation of central inverters for large scale PV power plants. I have to add:

I talked a well known supplier and apparently they do not assign such a rate to their product though they allow for the eventual aging and the gradual wear and tear of their components in the inverter, like capacitors, bridge, etc.

I'd like to factor in this value in energy production across 20 -25 year operation.

Ali

[André Mermoud]

I have never seen any article nor publication about the ageing of the inverters.

I heard that we we can wait MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of the order of 15 years as an average with the modern devices, but nothing about degradation.

If someone has some information about this subject, thank you for sharing it ...

[1Plasmon]

Dear Andre,

Thank you for this feedback. I was looking at the main components in an inverter like On/Off cycling of IGBTs and its gradual moving away from the design point (band) of predicted good thermal heat sinking behavior. This is just an example. Capacitors or IGBTs are purely examples and do present an opportunity to think/explore if they degrade over time (affecting output). If we find out they really do and therefore allowed for in the overall architecture of the inverter system, then I'd like to know if it could be modeled somehow in your software.

Best,

Ali