String inverters vs. microinverters vs. power optimizers, DC/AC ratio and inverter sizing, CEC weighted efficiency, grid-support functionality like volt-VAR and frequency-watt, and selection criteria by project type.
Inverter topology is a design decision that shapes shading tolerance, monitoring granularity, and the string sizing math from Module 10 — not a late-stage procurement choice. This module works through the three dominant topologies and their real tradeoffs, how DC/AC ratio deliberately trades inverter utilization against clipping, why CEC weighted efficiency is the number that belongs in a production model instead of peak efficiency, and the volt-VAR and frequency-watt grid-support functions modern smart inverters are increasingly required to provide under IEEE 1547-2018.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a shaded module drags down an entire series string under a string inverter but not under microinverters, why a DC/AC ratio above 1.0 is intentional design rather than a sizing error, and why utility-scale ground-mount projects overwhelmingly favor centralized inverters despite module-level electronics' shading-tolerance advantage — the topology reasoning Module 12's energy modeling and Module 15's installation content both assume.