Market and Technology Trends
Status of the Power Converter Industry 2023
By Yole Intelligence —
Renewable energy and electrification of everything drive the power converter market toward $146B by 2028.
YINTR23345
The total market for power converters will exceed $146 billion by 2028.
The trend toward “electrification of everything” significantly increases the demand for power converters. This includes everything from electric vehicles and charging stations to industrial automation and robotics. While in 2022, the industrial motor segment still represented the largest power converter market, the xEV power converter market is growing substantially and is expected to become the third largest market by 2028 after PV and industrial. For instance, power converters for battery energy storage systems will feature the fastest growth in the coming five years, with a 2022-2028 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.3%.
Race to horizontal integration
This report highlights China's dominant position in most end markets analyzed, particularly in converter suppliers. The supply chain is more consolidated for high-power converters, while it is very fragmented for low-power. Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly involved in converter manufacturing to save costs and are leveraging their vertical integration. On a different strategic track, several collaborations (M&As or Joint Ventures) are tracked, aiming for horizontal integration. By integrating different segments, companies expand their product portfolios and offer a complete solution to customers. For example, a company specializing in xEV may also provide a battery energy storage system (BESS) or EV charger to offer integrated charging and energy storage solutions for electric vehicles. To expand business and reduce the dependence on year-to-year market variations, there is a shift from focusing solely on system and end-system manufacturing and sales toward service-oriented organizations.
Increasing power density is the ultimate target
The rapid deployment of renewable energy sources and electrification of everything have necessitated the development of efficient and reliable power converters such as rectifiers (AC/DC), inverters (DC/AC), and even DC/DC converters. At the system level, there is a trend to do “more with less,” i.e., integrate more power within smaller, lightweight systems. A higher power density could be achieved using the higher switching frequency (HF) achievable with wide bandgap (WBG) technologies, such as SiC and GaN. Other technology trends in power converters include increasing conversion efficiency, increasing power and voltage, and the use of modular systems.
ABB, AEG Power Solution, Alstom, Alpitronic, Bosch, Bombardier, BYD, CRRC, Chloride, Delta Electronics, Dynapower, Eaton, Enphase, Emerson Electric, Fuji Electric, GaN system, General Electric, Gold Wind, GoodWe, Growatt, Hitachi, Huawei, Infineon, Ingeteam, Innovance, Hitachi, Infineon, Kehua Tech, Legrand, Littelfuse, Marelli, Mitsubishi Electric, Nidec, Power Electronics, Riello UPS, RXHK, Sineng, Schneider Electric, SMA, Socomec, Sungrow , Sunpower Corporation, Semikron Danfoss, Siemens, Sinexcel, Starcharge, STMicroelectronics, Tesla, TMEIC, Toshiba, Tritium, UAES, Valeo, Vitesco, Vishay, Wind Solutions, Wolfspeed, Yaskawa and more…
Key Features
- Power converter 2018-2028 market size and value. The total market value for power converters will reach $146.1 B by 2028.
- 2018-2028 market numbers for nine power converter applications: xEV, rail, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems (BESS), photovoltaics, industrial motor drives, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), EV DC chargers and high voltage direct current lines (HVDC) in Munits and $B.
- Market trends in all analyzed application segments.
- Overview of the power converter supply chain and key players for each application segment.
- Deep insight into global power converter technology trends and technology trends by application.
Product objectives :
- Provide an overview of the main applications for power converters (9 segments analyzed in this report).
- Provide market metrics and forecasts for power converters for each market segment
- Analyze the market drivers and understand the dynamics of each market segment and the synergies between them
- Give an overview of the power converter supply chain (devices, modules, converters, and system levels)
- Have an overview of power converter/system leaders by segment
- Analyze the shifting of business models, synergies with other industries, and opportunities for newcomers in the converter segment
- Furnish an analysis of inverter technology trends by each application
Glossary
Why this report?
Scope of the report
Report objective
Methodology
About the authors
Companies cited
Three-page summary
Executive summary
Market forecasts
- 2022-2028 global converter market forecast ($M)
- Split by application
- Split by converter power level
- 2022-2028 Power converter market forecast in $M and MUnits
- Automotive & Mobility (xEV, Rail)
- Industrial (Industrial Motor Drives ,UPS, PV, Wind, BESS, EV DC charger, HVDC)
Context
Market trends
- Automotive & Mobility
- Industrial
Supply chain analysis
- Supply chain structure and positioning of main players, by application
- Business diversification
- Raw material issues in one application might impact another application
- Will China dominate the world (of power electronic applications)?
- Horizontal integration
- Mergers and acquisitions and partnership
- Company profiles : Huawei – Delta – Ingeteam
Technology trends
- Main technology trends in converters
- key trends in power converters
- Trends towards larger installation size
- Towards a higher system voltage
- Toward MVDC, a new emergent market
- Synergies between different power electronic applications
- Modular vs monolithic converters in a nutshell
- Towards higher power density
- Converter voltage, power levels and WBG technology adoption
- Towards higher frequencies: EMI issue
- Additional functionalities (communication, intelligence..)
- System integration levels
- Technology trends by application
- xEV
- Rail
- Industrial motor drives
- UPS
- PV
- Wind
- BESS
- EV DC charger
- HVDC
- Cooling solutions in converters
- Drivers for innovative cooling approaches
- Power converter cooling trends
- Different power stage topologies
- Trends towards two stages converter
- AC/DC stage
- DC/DC stage
- DC/AC stage
- How is the adoption of GaN in high-voltage converters?
- WBG for power converters
- Rationale behind WBG adoption
- GaN & SiC in automotive
- Market trends and requirements – Charging Infrastructure
Conclusion and outlook