Enphase Begins U.S. Production of Power Modules for 5 MW IQ Solid-State Transformer Racks

Enphase Energy has started building power modules in the United States for its IQ Solid-State Transformer (IQ SST) system, advancing development of a power architecture designed to support the growing electricity demands of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

The company said the modules are being manufactured at its facility in Arlington, Texas, where they will be used to assemble and validate full-scale IQ SST racks. The system is being developed for AI data centers transitioning toward 800 VDC power architectures.

The IQ SST is designed to convert medium-voltage AC directly to 800 VDC, with a sub-millisecond response to rapidly changing AI computing loads. Enphase said the architecture could reduce the requirement for local battery energy buffering near AI compute racks.

Each power module has a capacity of 4 kW, with hundreds of modules operating together in an IQ SST rack. The distributed solid-state transformer architecture is designed for rack capacities of up to 5 MW.

Enphase is currently validating the system at megawatt scale, including power-module and full-system performance. Testing covers medium-voltage AC operation between 13.8 kV and 34.5 kV, electrical and thermal performance at full-rack scale, power-conversion efficiency, distributed control and redundancy, and partial-discharge characteristics for insulation performance.

At the core of each module is a proprietary high-frequency transformer developed by Enphase’s magnetics team. The transformer provides electrical isolation between medium- and low-voltage domains, while a fiber-optic connection provides the only other link across the isolation boundary.

The modules also incorporate gallium nitride (GaN) power-switching technology and Enphase’s custom Kestrel ASIC, which integrates power control, sensing, communications, protection and security functions.

Enphase said the IQ SST power modules share their form factor and manufacturing processes with its latest IQ Microinverters. This commonality is expected to support automated, high-volume production as the company moves toward commercialization.

The company has shipped approximately 89.4 million microinverters and currently has U.S. manufacturing capacity of about 12 million microinverters annually. Enphase said the existing manufacturing model could eventually support IQ SST power module production capacity at the scale of tens of gigawatts annually.

Enphase plans to assemble complete IQ SST racks in Texas as system-level validation progresses. The company is developing the platform around its U.S. manufacturing footprint and supply chain, with the supply chain expected to meet applicable federal requirements, including Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions.

The development comes as AI data centers place increasing demands on power infrastructure and operators explore higher-voltage DC architectures to improve the efficiency and scalability of electricity delivery to high-density computing systems.