Mit bidirektionalem Laden wird Solarstrom aus der Photovoltaikanlage in Elektroautos und Hausbatterien gespeichert und in den Abendstunden oder bei Bedarf für den Betrieb von Haushaltsgeräten ins Heimnetz zurückgespeist. Foto: INFINEON
On hot summer days, the share of solar power in the energy mix reaches record levels. But what to do when the sun is not shining? With bidirectional charging, solar power from the photovoltaic system is stored in electric cars and home batteries and fed back into the home grid in the evening hours or when needed to operate household appliances. This protects the environment and the wallet and creates further incentives to switch to emission-free electromobility.
Infineon Technologies AG and Delta Electronics, a leading global provider of power supply and energy management solutions from Taiwan, have developed a three-in-one system that integrates solar power system, home storage and charging station. Thanks to bidirectional inverters, the electric car is not only charged, but can also become a buffer storage for the home’s emergency power supply. More and more cars are equipped for this. In the future, bidirectional energy flows can also be used to realise new vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions.
“In order to make a sustainable contribution to decarbonisation, we need to think of electromobility holistically: from the generation of green electricity and a stable, efficient grid infrastructure to storage and consumption,” says Peter Wawer, Head of Infineon’s Industrial Power Control Division. “With our solutions for bidirectional charging, the electric car at home can be charged cost-effectively with solar power and equally serve as a buffer storage.”
A single-family home consumes an average of 10-15 kWh of energy per day. A fully charged car battery with a capacity of 30 to 100 kWh could therefore theoretically bridge a few days as an emergency power solution. Homeowners thus secure cheap electricity as well as more independence in power supply.
With an output power of about 10 kW, the new system from Delta allows a maximum continuous current of 34 A and achieves peak efficiencies of more than 97.5 percent. To increase power density, energy-efficient power semiconductors made of silicon carbide (SiC) from Infineon are used. Compared to silicon-based semiconductors, the compound semiconductor SiC reduces energy losses when converting electricity by about half. The size of charging stations can also be reduced by about 30 percent. With SiC, photovoltaic systems become more efficient, charging times at fast-charging stations and wallboxes can be shorter and the range of electric cars can be increased by five to ten percent.
Green mobility with electricity from renewable energy sources
By the end of this decade, more than half of all newly registered vehicles should be partially or fully electric. Green mobility can only be achieved with climate-neutral energy. One key is therefore the use of wind and solar energy. The fluctuating availability of these energy sources must be balanced out by electrical storage systems in order to stabilise the grids.
Semiconductors from Infineon are an important driver of green mobility. Infineon is the number 1 in power electronics and enables the expansion of renewable energies as well as the energy-efficient storage and use of green electricity. As the world market leader in semiconductor solutions for cars, Infineon pioneered the development of electric vehicles. Around every second plug-in hybrid or fully electric car produced in 2021 uses Infineon semiconductors in the inverter. Infineon power semiconductors are also setting standards in charging stations: the 50 kW Hypercharger from alpitronic is the first wall-mounted charging station that allows two cars to be charged simultaneously.www.infineon.com/green-energy
Read this and other articles on mobility 4.0 electric-networked-autonomous in the current eMove360° magazine in german language (Download-PDF). You can order the print version at sabine.metzger@emove360.com.
