What Is A Grid-Tie Inverter?

Friday, February 3, 2012 by Beckie Bordenaro
Two weeks ago my response would have been 'heck if I know' but now that we have a line that carries them I can answer the question.

Of course my first action when hearing about grid tie inverters was to ask my old friend 'Google'. Which brought me to another pal, Wikipedia.

grid tied inverterTo start with, you might be calling them something different. I've seen GTI (grid-tie inverter), PV inverters, solar inverters, synchronous inverters, grid-interactive inverters and a mix of all of the above.

The purpose of a grid-tie inverter is to convert direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC) and send that electricity into an existing electrical grid.

Grid-tie inverters are popular in solar panels and small wind turbines because that power is being used to power homes and businesses.


You might ask why these are becoming popular... great question and one I asked myself!

In many places you are now able to sell your energy to the utility grid. There are a number of ways to do this so that would need a separate blog (and plenty of additional research by me).

Regardless, check out our our new single phase solar inverters (GTI, PV inverter, etc.) from Carlo Gavazzi, the ISGA series.

Marshall Wolf Automation is your authorized industrial automation distributor for the complete line of Carlo Gavazzi sensors, relays, industrial DC power supplies, monitoring relays and now... grid-tie inverters!



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