A Better Material Has Now Been Discovered for Use in the Solar Industry

Solar power is big business at the moment, and various companies are jumping onboard with this type of renewable energy, either selling or reap the benefits themselves. Now, scientists at GE’s Global Research Center have discovered a material that could just revolutionize the solar industry. It was first discovered in an attempt to produce artificial diamonds, but now researchers have found that silicon carbide (SiC) can actually replace silica that is currently used throughout the solar industry.

Silicon carbide is a compound of silicon and carbon that has super strength, is an excellent conductor of electricity and can cope with very high temperatures. This type of application is used most often in solar power inverters that switch DC current that is generated by solar power to AC current that can be fed back to the grid.

SiC has the ability to not only cope with high temperatures but to also switch faster than any silicon based products and achieve twice the power density while doing so. And, it has about half the physical footprint than that of silicone based inverters, which is an important factor.

The Sic LV5+ Solar Inverter from GE has an efficiency of about 99%, while others in the EU are only at 98% on average and while this might not seem like a big deal, it’s the difference between powering an extra 170 extra homes per year. SiC is going to bring great things to the worlds of not just solar power but possibly planes, trains and wind turbines too and could be one of those technologies that can change the world.