Project description
Greener SiC-based converters
The clean energy transition in Europe calls for further advancements in the power electronic converters industry to improve the integration of renewable energy sources, with increased reliability and lifetime and reduced cost. In this context, the EU-funded SiC4GRID project aims to bring about those advancements while also improving the European market’s competitiveness in silicon carbide (SiC) converters globally. The project will introduce innovations in the converter modules design and development, including gate drivers, in the IoT platform and in the software with digital twin modelling and self-healing energy management. The focus will be on converter applications including offshore wind, onshore wind and PV farms with different converter topologies which will be tested and validated either physically or digitally.
Objective
SiC4GRID is a 42-months project gathering partners from the complete value chain of SiC-based converters collaborating to tackle current obstacles to the technologies' market uptake. SiC4GRID thus aims for an optimised integrated SiC-based technology composed of three-fold innovations in terms of hardware, software and IoT. Indeed, to optimise both techno-economic and environmental pillars, the consortium will design, produce, test and validate an integrated product composed of a 30% smaller size energy-efficient SiC-based power module competitive with state-of-the-art technology and coupled with an adapted optimised self-healing energy management system (EMS). This EMS amplifies the benefits of a strong system-level IoT architecture and adapted digital tools such as digital twin and optimisation algorithms.
Throughout the project, the circularity and eco-design of all steps of the converter manufacturing process will be targeted with a strong emphasis on resource optimisation and carbon emission reduction. The testing phase will be done both as an integrated modular converter on a physical test bench, as well as digitally to increase the variety of relevant applications and real-condition scenario. For the digital simulations, three use cases will therefore be chosen to increase the validated parameters and scope of applications, including MMC and SST converters, onshore/offshore wind and PV applications, as well as the potential for storage.
Overall, the project contributes to advancing the market readiness of the technology by lowering its cost (30% cost reduction compared to silicon converters), its size (15% size reduction), its lifetime (30+ years) and its environmental impact (30% resource consumption reduction and 50% CO2 emission reduction). In the longer-term, SiC4GRID will thus also help renewable energies integrate the energy grid and bring European leadership to the forefront of converter technology providers.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet of things
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgium