Electronics in Motion and Conversion July 2012 - Bodo's Power

tion-dependent electricity costs mainly throughout the day, it is possible
that intelligent all-in-one solutions using efficient storage technologies
could allow for substantial cost savings. The options for doing so
are many and varied, as almost all types of storage open up enormous
potential for lowering costs, which in turn makes the use of
energy storage systems increasingly attractive. Current battery technologies,
for example, require an investment of at least 15 euro cents
per kWh of stored energy that the installation is intended to generate.
Over the next five to ten years, as the mass production of these technologies
increases, it is expected that costs will drop to a level of
around seven to ten euro cents per kWh.
Intersolar Europe 2012 depicts the industry
The Intersolar Europe 2012 trade show that took place in Munich
from June 13 to 15, 2012 cleary represented the market. On 170,000
square meters of exhibition space in 15 halls and an outdoor exhibition
area, 1909 exhibitors showed their inventions – a small decline
compared to 2011, when 2286 companies demonstrated products
and solutions. Markus Elsässer, director of Solar Promotion GmbH
(organizer of the Intersolar Europe), reasons that “the industry is
going through a consolidation phase, characterized by overcapacity
and a lack of reliability concerning political decisions”. This political
laxness reduces planning reliability. He nevertheless remains optimistic
– even the slightly lower number of exhibitors signifies the second
best result in the 20 year long history of the show. Mr. Elsässer
emphasized that the solar crisis was not a German crisis but happened
worldwide. This year, 54% of exhibitors at Intersolar Europe
came from abroad – from a total of 49 countries. Germany is home to
871 (2011: 988) of the exhibitors, followed by China with 388 (2011:
523), Italy (2011: 106) with 78, Spain with 48 (2011: 72), and Taiwan
(2011: 67) and Austria (2011: 50) with 46 companies each.
About 66000 visitors from 160 countries filled the showfloor in those
three days. Around 40% of the visitors came from outside Germany.
The Intersolar Europe Conference took place in parallel from June 11
to 14, 2012 and boasted approximately 400 speakers. About 2,000
attendees took part in the conference and its side events. The main
focus lied on “Stability of power grids” as well as “new storage technologies
and “large PV plants”. The area of solar heating brought the
topics “process temperature”, “solar cooling” and “solar heating concepts”.
Another important topic this year was the international market
situation and its development which was dealt with in different sessions.
The special exhibit “PV and e-mobility” caused a lot of interest. Thousands
of visitors crowded around the combinations of PV carports,
charging stations and modern electric cars presented on the open-air
exhibition ground of Messe München. With 11 partners the trade fair
demonstrated state-of-the-art technology and delivered hands-on
experience with the future of electric mobility. The program was completed
by test drives with different vehicles, from e-bikes to roadsters.
Electric vehicles play an important role in our future energy supply,
thanks to their batteries storing electricity which in turn stabilizes the
grid. Intelligent control technology charges the batteries when sufficient
cheap power is available. At peak times, when electricity
demand is high among grid users, the stored power can be used as
a short-term backup. As private vehicles spend 90% of their time
parked and not in use, this opens up enormous potential to compensate
for peaks in demand. These intelligent systems are the most
effective and sustainable when the vehicles are “filled” with solar
power from, for example, the energy produced by the user’s own
roof-mounted PV installation or carport. In addition to protecting cars
MARKET
Electric vehicles like the Renault Z.E. Twizy play an important role in
our future energy supply
Picture: Marisa Robles Consée
from rain and snow, PV carports are also able to deliver the energy
needed for e-vehicles. Part of the solar power is used to charge the
vehicle battery, while the rest is consumed for a different purpose or
fed into the grid. Special charging stations for PV carports synchronize
the charging times of the electric vehicles with electricity generated by
the photovoltaic installation. An installation with a capacity of three
kilowatts (kW) can supply enough power for a vehicle to travel around
15,000 km per year. The combination makes sense because electric
vehicles have significantly greater levels of efficiency than vehicles
with combustion engines, and generating power from renewable
sources is much more efficient than producing biofuel. On the other
hand, the fluctuating ‘renewables’ need storage facilities like this.
The worldwide PV market as seen by the German Solar Industry
Association BSW Solar: There is still a huge potential of growth.
Source: BSW Solar
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems
ISE have developed a three-phase charger with 97% efficiency and
high power density to be used in charging stations and in vehicles.
With a rated power of 22 kW, the charger is able to load a typical
electric vehicle battery to 80% in 45 minutes. Through the use of
novel silicon carbide transistors (SiC JFETs), which are characterised
by low conduction losses and good switching performance, the
Freiburg researchers achieved a maximum efficiency of over 97%.
Special semiconductor modules and gate driver circuits were developed
and optimised specifically for the charger. The new semiconductor
technology allows for a switching frequency of 80 kHz. This
significantly reduces the size of the filters on the side of the grid and
battery which enabled a power density of 2.8 kW/l for the complete
www.bodospower.com July 2012 Bodo´s Power Systems ®
www.bodospower.com July 2012 Bodo´s Power Systems ®
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