Self-produced solar energy sharing amongst neighbours

5th October 2021

Beatrice O'Flaherty

0 0

In order to meet Europe's ambitious climate targets, greenhouse gas emissions must be drastically reduced by 2030. To achieve this, around 28 million multi-family houses with over 80 million households must be equipped with photovoltaics. Accordingly, Infineon has introduced a solar power sharing technology.

Despite the support of the EU, there are still enormous technical and regulatory obstacles, specifically with the power supply for small multi-family houses from renewable energy sources.

In a cooperation with Infineon Technologies, Munich-based startup PIONIERKRAFT has overcome these hurdles with an innovative hardware and service solution coined PIONIERKRAFTwerk (German only). This technology enables self-produced solar energy to be distributed physically and by demand between different households. With Infineon's support, renewable energy can then be shared with neighbours in a decentralised manner and without intermediate storage – economically and without bureaucratic obstacles.

The hardware of the participating parties is connected to the platform provided by PIONIERKRAFT using the Internet. This determines the power surplus of the generator as well as the current demand of neighbours to autonomously control the distribution process. Even households without a photovoltaic system can use solar power, therefore. The solution also regulates the power flows without using the public grid.

Several Infineon components make this possible, including the discrete CoolSiC MOSFET IMBG120R030M1H in the surface-mount D2PAK-7L package and the EiceDRIVER Compact Gate Driver 1ED3122MU12H. By working together, the PIONIERKRAFTwerk performs efficient and bidirectional power transfer. Therefore, energy with a power of up to 2000 watts can be transferred between households. In addition, the CoolMOS P7 power MOSFET IPD70R1K4P7S ensures the safe and reliable operation of the solution.

The PIONIERKRAFTwerk increases the share of energy consumed locally, enables more people to access affordable, renewable energy, and improves the profitability and efficiency of photovoltaic systems. In addition, the solution allows the continued use of energy from older systems even after the end of the EEG (energy and economic growth) funding.

More information about Infineon’s contribution to energy efficiency can be read here.