en.Wedoany.com Reported - Enphase Energy, a power electronics manufacturer headquartered in California, USA, has introduced a new solid-state transformer technology for next-generation data center power infrastructure, including high-voltage direct current (DC) rack power architectures for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
The company's IQ Solid-State Transformer (IQ SST) does not use a single large centralized converter but instead achieves power conversion through 342 small power modules in each standard 1.25 MW rack, with an efficiency of 98.5%.
Enphase states that this distributed approach maintains 99.999% availability amid volatile power fluctuations that plague data centers and make them a burden on the grid.
For data center operators, power fluctuations and the conversion of power from traditional medium-voltage AC systems to high-voltage DC architectures are persistent issues related to grid behavior.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in a report titled "Energy and AI: Critical Issues" that unpredictable power fluctuations caused by AI data center workloads will worsen as AI hardware power density increases and GPUs become more advanced. The report notes that the key challenge in power delivery is minimizing the space and material footprint of power equipment, minimizing capital costs, and reducing power conversion losses. Power conversion losses generate significant heat that must be managed in addition to the heat produced by IT equipment.
The IEA report authors stated that gallium nitride (GaN)-based power electronics are one of several viable solutions for addressing space savings in power conversion. They also noted that China controls 99% of the supply and listed silicon carbide (SiC)-based power electronics, lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, and ferrite cores for solid-state transformers as solutions.
Enphase's IQ SST uses GaN-based semiconductors and is built with a distributed architecture. Andy Newbold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Enphase Energy, said the company has spent two decades proving that distributed is superior to centralized, first in solar, then in batteries, and now this approach is applied to data center power.
At the end of June, Enphase Energy joined the Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation as a Platinum Member, sharing its IQ SST platform with the foundation's network of nearly 700 individuals and organizations to co-design next-generation computing hardware. Newbold stated that power architecture should not be solved behind closed doors. These standards are being developed, and the industry is moving toward 800 VDC. Enphase brings two decades of experience building distributed, semiconductor, and software-defined power electronics, achieving mass manufacturing.
Enphase Energy's IQ SST, first announced in April, directly converts medium-voltage AC at 15 kV and 35 kV interconnection levels into regulated 800 VDC in a single step. This approach reduces a chain of transformers and converters to one step.
The power modules used in the IQ SST are derived from Enphase's ninth-generation microinverters. They use the same gallium nitride (GaN) power switch technology and are coordinated by the company's fifth-generation control ASIC, the custom 22nm chip "Kestrel." Enphase will manufacture the IQ SST on the same automated platform used to ship millions of microinverters. The power modules can be built using standard high-volume semiconductor components, supplied to US manufacturing facilities, leveraging the company's existing supply chain.
Since the IQ SST platform can operate without internal batteries, it reduces or eliminates the need for rack-level battery sidecars and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems that operators typically need to plan for and allocate extra space on the data center floor. Newbold stated that for data center developers, when every square foot competes with computing, returning space to the rack is real value.
He said Enphase's collaboration with the OCP Foundation will focus on sharing "real engineering." While the current focus is on data centers, Newbold noted that demand for the same distributed, software-defined architecture could extend to other large, high-power markets. Currently, US demand is expected to exceed 11 GW by 2031. He added that the company can see the technology supporting applications such as utility-scale solar, batteries, and electric vehicle charging in the future. Enphase expects a full system demonstration later this year, customer pilots in 2027, and volume shipments beginning in late 2027 or early 2028.
