Innovative High-Efficiency and High-Reliability Power Electronics Technologies for Renewable Energy Systems

日益加剧的全球变暖和化石燃料的枯竭导致人们对利用清洁可再生能源的兴趣与日俱增。加拿大拥有巨大的可再生能源生产潜力。然而，由于必要基础设施的成本、复杂性和实施，以及可再生能源生产的间歇性，将可再生能源纳入电网是具有挑战性的。电力电子逆变器是将风能和太阳能等可再生能源整合到电网中的使能技术。然而，由于功率逆变器的低效，在电力转换阶段，可再生电力的很大一部分损失在热量上。因此，不仅需要研究提高可再生能源的产量，还需要通过新型高效的功率变换系统来降低功率损耗，并克服目前功率逆变器中存在的逆变器体积大、成本高、可靠性低、功率密度低等技术障碍。电动汽车等并网非线性负荷在充电时的数量不断增加。可再生能源的间歇性和日益增多的非线性负荷严重影响了电网的电能质量。因此，需要研究开发先进的电力逆变器，不仅要将可再生能源并入电网，而且要缓解电网的电能质量问题。拟议的研究计划将开发新的超高效率和高可靠性DC-AC逆变器技术，采用最新的宽带隙(WBG)和氮化镓(GaN)器件，用于可再生能源集成和电网电能质量改善。该研究计划将开发新的非隔离单级降压升压DC-AC逆变器，以减少功率处理级数、功率损耗、成本和体积；开发新的单级隔离DC-AC逆变器，以提高效率和功率密度；通过消除穿透来提高拟议新逆变器的可靠性，并通过整合磁性元件来减小磁体体积；以及为拟议的逆变器开发数字控制策略，以整合可再生能源，缓解电网电能质量问题。从长远来看，该研究计划将建造和实施符合商业产品设计和约束的各种新型DC-AC逆变器原型，并将开发的逆变器技术商业化，带来更广泛的社会影响。这项拟议研究的结果和技术进步将与加拿大电力电子公司、电力公用事业公司、电力工程师和研究人员分享。拟议的研究计划将为学生提供行业驱动的培训和可再生能源整合和转换方面的合作机会。通过该研究项目培养的学生将成为加拿大劳动力中高素质的工程师和技术领导者。

Increasing global warming and depleting fossil fuels have led to a growing interest in utilizing clean renewable energy. Canada has huge potential for renewable energy production. However, the integration of renewable energy into the power grid is challenging due to the cost, complexity and implementation of the necessary infrastructure, and the intermittent nature of renewable power production. Power electronics inverters are the enabling technology for the integration of renewable energy such as wind and solar energy into the power grid. However, a large portion of the renewable power is lost to heat in the power conversion stage due to inefficiencies of the power inverters. Therefore, research efforts are needed not only to increase renewable power production but to also decrease power losses with the new efficient power conversion systems, and to overcome the current technological barriers in power inverters such as high inverter sizes, high cost, low reliability, and low power density. The number of grid-connected non-linear loads such as electric vehicles when charging is continuously increasing. The intermittent nature of renewable power and the increasing number of non-linear loads severely affect the grid power quality. Therefore, research is required to develop advanced power inverters not only to integrate renewable power into the grid but to also mitigate grid power quality issues. The proposed research program will develop new ultra high-efficiency and high-reliability DC-AC inverter technologies with the latest Wide Band Gap (WBG) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices for renewable energy integration and grid power quality improvement. This research program will develop new non-isolated single-stage buck-boost DC-AC inverters to reduce the number of power processing stages, power losses, cost, and size; Develop new single-stage isolated DC-AC inverters to improve efficiency and power density; Improve the reliability of the proposed new inverters by eliminating shoot-through, and reduce the magnetic volume by integrating the magnetic components; and Develop digital control strategies for the proposed inverters to integrate renewable energy sources and mitigate the grid power quality issues. The proposed research program in the long terms will build and implement various prototypes of the new DC-AC inverters meeting the design and constraints of commercial products, and commercialize the developed inverter technologies to bring a broader societal impact. The findings and technological advancement from the proposed research will be shared with Canadian power electronics companies, power utilities, power engineers and researchers. The proposed research program will provide industry-driven training and collaboration opportunities for students in renewable energy integration and conversion. The students trained through this research program will become highly qualified engineers and technology leaders in the Canadian workforce.