Partner in power: Part one: Solar PV modules would be of little use were it not for an electronic box of tricks that is normally out of sight and out of mind - the inverter.

The central role of the inverter is to convert the direct current delivered by the solar panels to an alternating current that can be used by electrical appliances or fed to the grid. Why, then is the device not simply called a converter? Because, in the past, that was what electrical engineers called rotary motor-generator machines that converted ac to dc, and operating this process in reverse to change dc to ac was the inverse of the earlier use.