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In order to cope with the rising prices and reduce future costs, solar technology manufacturers and PV system developers have been looking for ways to limit the use of copper in projects. Since PV inverters typically account for 9% of PV system costs and most require a significant amount of copper cables, it is a logical first place to start when trying to engineer a solution. Inverter design and technologies In order to cope with the rising costs many inverter manufacturers are looking at designs that limit the amount of copper used throughout a PV system, which in turn can help to drive down balance of system (BOS) costs for their customers.

This vital technology would allow the effective integration of these solar installations by providing the necessary voltage support for these intermittent resources, which can cause power quality problems and reliability impacts because of fluctuations in their generation output.

The electricity loads being served by today’s alternating current (AC) power grids are increasingly natively direct current (DC), at the end-use level.  In fact, according to some estimates, approximately 80 percent of the power loads in commercial and residential structures are now DC.  Along with the broad political and policy support for inverter-based native DC power sources, this is leading many industry players to conclude that it makes inherent sense to reduce DC-AC-DC conversion losses and integrate DC distribution networks into the power supply infrastructure.  According to a new report from Navigant Research, the total worldwide capacity of DC distribution networks will surpass 2.3 gigawatts (GW) by 2025, up from just 196 megawatts (MW) in 2013.

One part power electronics and one part networking and communications technology, microinverters and DC optimizers (commonly referred to as module-level power electronics, or MLPEs) are playing an increasingly significant role in large-scale and distributed renewable electricity generation.

However, the standards committees are concentrating on cables with contacts at the end, with Europe the laggard. The European Commission and European standards organizations hope for a common interface in general use by 2017. Quixotically, they hope their standards will become global despite the fact that North America, China and Japan are showing more urgency, already pushing for their standards to be adopted globally. Nonetheless, there are no agreed and adopted standards anywhere for the fastest "Level 3" form of charging  -- top request for public places. If Level 3 can be made safe and affordable, charging some EVs in ten minutes is possible if they have the right type of lithium-ion battery.  Fastest charging means expensive hardware and installation at present, often with a large lithium-ion battery and ultracapacitor bank in the charger. Copying the 40MW delivery of a gasoline station is not necessarily feasible, safe or affordable yet. The forecast of the 2015 split between options is shown below. Discrete Level 1 stations will be modest in number because so many EVs will be charged slowly using a regular domestic power socket, the inverter being in the vehicle itself.Percentage split in numbers of EV charging stations sold worldwide in 2015. Level 1:    6 percentLevel 2:  80 percentLevel 3:  14 percentSource IDTechEx report "Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure 2011-2021"