Galvanic Isolation

Alencon's SPOT and BOSS products galvanically isolates electrical inputs and outputs. These inputs could include PV while outputs could be an inverter or a battery. Of course batteries can be both a source (input) or a load (an output). You can learn more about the benefits of galvanic isolation by downloading this whitepaper

Galvanic isolation is a unique feature of Alencon’s SPOT and BOSS and it is not available from other utility scale DC-DC optimizers on the market today. This feature is critical in for a variety of reasons including:

1. Wide Voltage MappingRange - With Galvanic Isolation, large differentials between input and output voltage can easily be "mapped" through the manipulaiton of transformer windings. Learn more about this functionality from the articles below:

    a. Voltage Mapping: The Key to Making DC-Coupled Solar + Storage Work

    b. How Mass Customization Lets You Generate More Solar Energy

    c. Inverter Replacement: Bridging the Gap Between 600 and 1000 Volts

2. Easier Management of System Grounding - Galvanic Isolation can be a great tool in a number of alternative energy application for resolving differentials in grounding schemes between input and output. Two great examples of this benefit are explained in the articles below:

    a. DC Coupling Grounded PV Systems with Floating Batteries

    b. PV Retrofits in the Age of Transformerless Inverters

Harnessing the Power of SiC

The Alencon family of DC-DC optimizer products is built on Silicon Carbide (SiC) metal–oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) technology. Alencon is a pioneer in the application and implementation of SiC MOSFET technology. The SPOT and BOSS DC-DC optimizers are able to take advantage of the unique properties and power density of SiC, namely high power, high voltage and high speed. This combination of characteristics allows Alencon to offer a high power, high frequency DC-DC converter in a small package. The traditional silicon semiconductors used by other PV power electronics manufacturers cannot deliver all three of these features and their resultant benefits. As a result, Alencon is able to deliver a uniquely high power and high efficiency DC-DC optimizer in which the input is electromagnetically isolated (galvanically isolated) from the output. This combination of unique power electronics is not available from any other PV DC-DC optimizer on the market today.