Advanced Power Electronic Converters for Improved Energy Efficiency in Photovoltaic and Automotive Applications

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Power Electronic Converters (PEC) have played a pivotal role in the steadily increasing global energy efficiency over the past 35 years, across transportation, industrial, commercial and residential sectors. PECs are the key enabling technology for efficiently harvesting electrical energy from renewable sources, and delivering it to the modern electrical loads that we rely on for a high standard of living. The power electronics component market represents approximately $20 Billion today and is rapidly growing. From 1990 to 2010, the efficiency gains achieved using PECs alone have eliminated the need to build an estimated 930 one-Gigawatt coal-fired power plants, saving $ 2.794 Trillion globally. Global awareness in climate change, compounded by the steadily rising demand for energy, underscores the need for cheap yet robust low-carbon technologies. The mass deployment of technologies such as Photovoltaics (PV) and Electric Vehicles (EV) will greatly alleviate our future global energy challenges, however today their cost/performance ratio remains far too high to be truly disruptive on a large scale. The high cost of PV systems remains the critical obstacle to achieving a penetration that exceeds 10% of the energy mix by 2030 in North America. While EVs consume nine times less energy than conventional vehicles, they represent only 0.4 % of the market in Canada. The long-term objective is to demonstrate PEC innovations, at the device, circuit and system level, to push these and future low-carbon applications beyond early adopters over the next 10 years.The dominant research trend in PECs is towards 1) increased switching frequency to reduce the size, cost and weight of the components, 2) deploying advanced digital control schemes to make PECs more modular, adaptive, re-configurable and reliable and 3) leveraging new Smart Power IC fabrication technologies to integrate sensing, power-stage and control functions on-chip. The next frontier of power electronics lies in the proliferation of new wide-bandgap power devices using Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), with the ultimate goal of providing unprecedented power density and energy savings.The grant will fund three synergistic projects with 12 HQPs, while providing valuable training in clean technologies for Canadian Engineers. The application focus of PV and EV is chosen based on the potential to achieve a high impact in modern society’s carbon footprint. The first project focuses on highly integrated 600 V GaN based PECs operating at multi-MHz switching frequencies. The second project is anchored around UofT’s one-of-a-kind custom EV prototype, which has a top speed of 130 km/h and a 210 km driving range; a record for this vehicle class. The work will focus on 1) a hybrid energy storage system comprised of ultracapacitors and lithium batteries with GPS-based power-mix optimization and 2) a new self-learning thermal management approach for the battery pack, specifically optimized for the cold Canadian climate. Finally, the third project extends our past work on Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking (DMPPT) in PV applications to an exciting new aerospace technology: the Solarship. The Canadian-made buoyant electric aircraft was conceived to deliver supplies in remote areas where roads, fuel and electrical infrastructure is sparse or non-existent, making conventional vehicles unpractical. The Helium filled wing creates buoyancy and increases the payload. Two electric motors are supplied by a lithium battery, which is charged using the large wing-mounted PV array during flight. Specialized PECs based on the partial-power-processing concept will be developed to maximize the solar energy harvesting in this weight sensitive application.