Direct Current (DC) power is the future of our sustainable energy future and global uptake of DC powered devices are on the rise. For instance, in residential buildings in United States of America, DC consumption currently makes up about 32 percent of total energy loads, and this could climb as high as 74 percent in homes that use electric vehicles and HVAC equipment with DC motors. In China and Europe, new cities and villages are being envisioned that will be entirely DC powered as the technology and applications offer the promise of enhanced energy efficiency, improved power quality and reliability, and inherent alignment with renewable and clean energy development. Although technology is propelling towards a DC-powered future, legacy AC infrastructure is anchoring to the past, hindering our ability to realize the full potential of energy efficient DC appliances and distributed energy. But as the electric power sector modernizes, two substantial changes signal a paradigm shift in advancing DC Applications. First, declining costs and increasing options in distributed generation (DG) offers an opportunity for micro-grids and low-voltage transmission close to loads. Second, improvements in battery technologies are driving down costs for localized energy storage. Batteries, which deliver DC power, offer many advantages, not only to the electric system for supply side management but also for demand side management. Moreover, governments around the world are promoting Solar DC Appliances like Fans, SWPs, etc. under universal electrification programs in rural areas, which still remain in acute darkness, making Solar DC bulbs, tube-lights, TVs, etc. accessible to them. The biggest opportunity comes from the fact that the leading form of distributed generation, solar photovoltaic, creates electricity in DC, thus cutting all conversion losses. Combining DC Storage with Solar Distributed Generation, Solar DC-powered micro-grids become a very attractive option for their system efficiency, reliability, resiliency, and ancillary benefits. Overall, looking at the brighter side of DC it is believed that it’s time to mainstream solar DC applications and understand what efforts will be required by the industry in doing so.

• Technology Landscape: Technology landscape and advances made globally in Solar DC Applications
• Innovations and Best Practices: Innovations big players/small players/start-ups are building in further scaling and advancing these solutions
• Customer Behavior: Changes in customer behavior are envisioned for higher adoption of Solar DC Systems and barriers faced by the end-user customer