Katı Hal Transformatörleri: Elektrik Şebekelerinin Geleceği mi?

When we talk of the process of electrification taking over our economy and industries, we mostly think of EVs, batteries, fast chargers, renewable energy, etc.

But at the end of the day, all of these new technologies still rely on rather old designs for the basic transformation of high-power electricity from power plants and solar farms to the levels used in cars, homes, data centers, industrial plants, etc.

The core design of the modern transformer dates back to the late 19th century, with early commercial models developed by William Stanley Jr. and later refined as AC power systems expanded, championed by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. The basic principle — electromagnetic induction using iron cores and copper windings — has remained largely unchanged for over a century.

This was a design good enough for when the only job of transformers was bring a standardized current from the grid to the right level in relatively stable and predictable conditions.

But now, as the electric grid and power generation become more decentralized, and the demand for quality of current gets more stringent, this is barely enough.

Luckily, the progress made in materials from the semiconductor industry is opening the path for a new potential type of transformer: solid-state transformers.

The Century-Old Grid: How Traditional Transformers Work

Technical Fundamentals of Traditional Transformers

As explained, a transformer is a device that takes input as current at a given voltage and converts it into another voltage, either lower or higher. A classical transformer’s capacity and current transformation are fixed by the number of copper or aluminum coils around the iron core. Additional parts like breakers, bushings, fuses, and other materials are there to ensure the transformer works safely.

While inflexible and bulky, these are very durable machines that can be used for decades, or even a full century. It is also a big business, with a market of $69B in 2025, and expected to grow 7.97% CAGR until 2034 to $135.9B.

Still, transformers as they are made today are relatively crude devices, using early technology invented first in the 1900s. As we become more and more dependent on electricity for transportation, connectivity, and other modern applications, this can become a problem, especially as the power grid is not running on just a few massive power plants anymore, but more intermittent, decentralized renewable sources.

“An old-school steel, copper, and oil transformer doesn’t have any monitoring, doesn’t have any control. In instances where electricity surges or a power plant trips offline, that can be a liability.”

- Drew Baglino – Founder and CEO of solid-state transformer company Heron Power

How Solid-State Transformers (SST) Work

This is with that concern in mind that engineers are looking to reinvent transformers. Instead of copper and iron, they turned their attention to new materials used in EVs and semiconductors, such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride.

Another fundamental difference in design is that Solid-state transformers (SSTs) are not made of one massive iron & copper block, but instead of many smaller modules assembled together. As a result, their capacity can be easily changed, and any failure point can be easily swapped out.

SSTs differ from traditional transformers in a few key technical points:

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Solving the Global Transformer Supply Shortage

Another issue with traditional transformers is simply that they are very hard to find lately.

While demand for more power grid capacity keeps rising due to electrification and the building of multi-gigawatt data centers, US utilities companies are scrambling to find enough transformers to maintain the grid, and even more improve it.

One key factor is that the power grid is aging, and even a device as robust as a transformer might need a replacement every 50-70 years or so. More than half of U.S. distribution transformers, roughly 40 million units, are already beyond their expected service life.

Combined with rising commodity prices, especially copper, this has led to transformer prices increasing from 45% to 95% since 2019, depending on the category.

“Power semiconductors keep getting cheaper. Steel, copper, and oil, unfortunately, is not in that situation. Commodity prices can move all over the place, and they generally move up.”

- Drew Baglino – Founder and CEO of solid-state transformer company Heron Power

An additional factor increasing costs has been tariffs on foreign steel and other metals, often up to 50% or more for countries providing the material quality required for transformers, like China or Brazil.

Lastly, there has not been just enough investment in increasing the supply of transformers, with many companies even closing in the early 2000s, in part due to too low investment in the grid by utility companies. So now, the supply chain of transformers, including the special grade of steel it requires (electrical steel), is just not available in sufficient amounts.

However, solid-state transformers will not immediately solve the cost issue of new transformers, even if they can provide a much-needed additional supply. This is because, for now, they are still 5x-10x more expensive than traditional transformers.

SST Applications: Where Solid-State Transformers Win

AI Data Centers and High-Power Infrastructure

Taken all together, these differences in capacity between old transformers and solid-state transformers completely change how they can be used.

They can take over the tasks of many different power supply devices currently used, simultaneously smoothing the power levels, converting AC to DC (or the other way around), connecting to both the grid and batteries, etc.

This has made SSTs a very attractive option for data centers, which face power supply issues that are much more complex than those of the average power user. For example, SSTs can remove the need for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and connection to the national grid, battery parks, and local renewables production (behind-the-meter power) all at once.

The more compact SSTs also save a lot of space in a data center, freeing capacity for more computing racks or support systems like cooling. So the extra costs come also with extra savings for special cases like data centers, which need much more than a simple traditional transformer can deliver.

“If you add up the cost of everything we’ve taken out, we’re 60% to 70% of that cost.”

— Haroon Inam, co-founder and CEO of DG Matrix, told TechCrunch.

For now, data centers have been the first customers for this new technology, as they appreciate its flexibility and compactness. In addition, this allows them to “skip the line” for new transformers. Lastly, it provides the sort of power stability that required a lot of extra investment until now, for example, Heron Link’s transformers can provide computing racks with 30 seconds of power while backup sources come online.

Renewables and Grid Energy Storage

Most of the power generation has been designed around AC, as it initially was produced by a spinning turbine in coal, gas, or hydro power plants. But photovoltaics, growing into a dominant source of energy generation, naturally produce DC current instead, requiring inverters to first turn it into AC, before being sent to the grid.

The same is true for batteries, which might be connected to the AC grid, but require DC both as input and output.

As a result, a solid-state transformer that can perform both the duties of an inverter and a transformer can end up costing the same price as two separate standard systems.

EV Charging and Bidirectional Support

Space and the facility’s overall footprint can be limiting factors for EV charging stations. In that respect, the density of SST could turn into a competitive advantage.

Like battery parks, they will also benefit from their ability to change voltage while also performing the task of an AC-DC inverter.

Lastly, a solid-state transformer in a charging station could help turn them into additional storage units, as the same device could alternate between drawing power from the grid or supplying energy to it.

For now, drivers of EVs are unlikely to be very interested in performing this role of “mobile battery”. But in the future, fleets of self-driving cars could likely increase their profitability by “renting out” their storage capacity at critical moments, and using charging stations and SSTs as a way to inject energy back into the grid at peak hours.

This trend will also become more and more prevalent as EVs’ battery packs become more and more durable, with little to no degradation from more frequent charge-discharge cycles.

The Future of the Smart Power Grid

For now, SSTs have been simply too expensive and new for utility companies to integrate into their electrical network.

However, in the long term, they could bring a radical change to how power grids are managed. They could especially cut transmission and distribution costs, one of the biggest contributors to utility bill inflation.

This is because solid-state transformers can respond to changing conditions, allowing grid operators to send more power through the same lines, reducing the need for new lines despite growing power consumption.

“You can actually make the infrastructure more affordable because you’re putting more kilowatt-hours through the same poles and wires. That’s where intelligence, in place of passive mechanical objects that were designed 100 years ago, can make a big difference.”

- Drew Baglino – Founder and CEO of solid-state transformer company Heron Power

It should be noted that silicon carbide and other semiconductors for power applications have only started to be mass-manufactured less than a decade ago, thanks to the EV boom. So it would make sense that they will progressively cost less and less, as more efficient manufacturing methods are developed, and the industry integrates economies of scale.

Most likely, this will be the required step for utility companies to start installing solid-state transformers at scale, which will then create a second wave of economies of scale.

Solid-State Transformer Market Conclusion

Solid-state transformers are still a very new technology, looking for their first mass market application. It seems to be slowly finding it with data centers, and increasingly with photovoltaic parks.

The next step will be to scale up production and demonstrate in real-world operation that this design of transformers can be more efficient, more reliable, and/or ultimately cheaper than the more established traditional designs.

A few startups have been pushing for SSTs, including Balıkçıl Gücü, founded by a former Tesla executive, DG Matrisi, focused on data centers, and Ampersan, based in Singapore but with capacity in the USA as well.

It remains to be seen if these startups, or the established giants in the electrical industry, will ultimately dominate this market, with the reactivity of traditional transformer companies to this shift in technology likely the key factor to watch for investors.

Investing In Solid-State Transformers: Eaton (ETN)

Eaton is a massive provider of electrical equipment, ranking #1 in US power conversion equipment, low & medium voltage electrical equipment, and aerospace hydraulics and fuel pumps.

It generated $24B in revenue in 2025, with 8% organic sales growth; the Americas is the largest segment of the company, with data centers recently becoming its largest client segment (almost a quarter of all revenues).

This puts the company in a perfect position to benefit from the trend of electrification, data center construction, re-industrialization (especially semiconductor fabs), and renewable energy build-up, to the point that the company’s stated goal is:

“We will be the world’s premier power management company.”

To fulfill this ambition, the company has invested $1B to add 2 million square feet to its production capacity.

In addition, the company also managed a “mobility” section, catering to demand for commercial truck transmission & clutches (#1 in Americas) and electrical mobility.

In total, 90% of the company’s profitability in 2025 was from the electrical and aerospace segments.

The aerospace segment includes providing key components to civilian and military aircraft like the F-35, Boeing KC-46A, Sikorsky CH-53K, Boeing 777X, Boeing B737MAX, Airbus A350, Airbus A320NEO, etc. It is also providing components for space applications to SpaceX, Blue Origin, Ariane Group, Amazon, Eutelsat Group, etc.

Reflecting the growing demand for electrical equipment, Eaton’s backlog has steadily grown throughout the 2020s to reach a record level in 2025.

In August 2025, Eaton acquired the solid-state transformer company Resilient Power Systems for $86M.

The startup had designs for ultra-compact EV charging depots that connect directly to the existing distribution grid, while Eaton sees further growth prospects in data center and energy storage, where its existing relations could help close more deals more quickly.

“We are excited to join Eaton, and believe our combined teams, capabilities and leading technology will support our continued growth in new products and markets, including data centres. Our ultra compact solid-state transformers can improve energy efficiency, time to market for projects, and support a reliable grid.”

— Resilient Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tom Keister

As most SST companies are still privately listed, the merging of Resilient Power Systems technology and Eaton’s extensive experience, sales network, and manufacturing capacity seems like a good way for investors to get exposure to the power transformation sector as a whole, without risk of disruption by the arrival of this new technology on the market, and benefiting from it instead.

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