Storage & energy management
Industry Term

AC-Coupled Battery

An AC-coupled battery is a battery system that connects on the AC side of a solar installation - so after a solar inverter - and uses a battery inverter to convert AC power into DC for storage.
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What does AC-Coupled Battery mean?

An AC-coupled battery is a battery system that connects on the AC side of a solar installation and uses an inverter to convert AC power into DC for storage.

When is a battery AC-coupled?

In an AC-coupled design, solar energy is converted to AC before it reaches the battery system. To charge the battery, the power is converted back to DC; when the battery discharges, it is converted to AC again. That flexibility can be useful for retrofits, but the conversions are not free.

How it relates to Tigo

Tigo’s Microinverter Tax content uses AC-coupled batteries as a comparison point for explaining conversion losses in solar-plus-storage systems.

Related glossary terms

  • DC-Coupled Battery
  • Conversion Tax
  • Energy Conversion
  • Round-Trip Efficiency