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

全球变暖的加剧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日益增长。加拿大在可再生能源生产方面具有巨大潜力。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发电的间歇性，将可再生能源纳入电网具有挑战性。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率，大部分可再生功率在功率转换阶段损失为热量。因此，研究工作不仅需要增加可再生能源的生产，而且还需要通过新的高效功率转换系统来减少功率损耗，并克服当前功率逆变器的技术障碍，例如逆变器尺寸大，成本高，可靠性低和功率密度低。电动汽车等充电时并网的非线性负载数量不断增加。可再生能源的间歇性和非线性负荷的增加严重影响了电网的电能质量。因此，需要研究开发先进的功率逆变器，不仅要将可再生能源纳入电网，还要减轻电网电能质量问题。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。本研究计画将发展新型非隔离式单级升降压式直流-交流转换器，以减少功率处理级数、功率损耗、成本及尺寸;发展新型单级隔离式直流-交流转换器，以提高效率及功率密度;借由消除直通效应，提高可靠性;并借由整合磁性元件，以减少磁性体积;为拟议的逆变器开发数字控制策略，以整合可再生能源并缓解电网电能质量问题。拟议的长期研究计划将建立和实施符合商业产品设计和限制的新型DC-AC逆变器的各种原型，并将开发的逆变器技术商业化，以带来更广泛的社会影响。拟议研究的结果和技术进步将与加拿大电力电子公司、电力公司、电力工程师和研究人员分享。拟议的研究计划将为可再生能源整合和转换的学生提供行业驱动的培训和合作机会。通过这项研究计划培训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.