Infineon Technologies and Delta Electronics have developed a three-in-one system that combines solar energy, energy storage and electric vehicle charging. Thanks to the bidirectional inverter, electric vehicles can not only be charged, but can also be used as buffer storage or as emergency backup power at home. More and more cars are equipped with this feature. Bidirectional energy flow can also be used to enable new vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions.
An average single-family home can use 10-15 kWh of energy per day. In theory, a fully charged car battery with a capacity of 30 to 100 kWh can last several days as an emergency power solution. Homeowners have access to cheap electricity and can also be more independent in their power supply.
The new system offered by Delta has a maximum continuous current of 34A and a peak efficiency of over 97.5%. Energy-efficient power semiconductors made of Infineon's silicon carbide are used to increase power density. Compared with silicon-based semiconductors, the composite material SiC reduces the energy loss by about half when switching current. The size of the charging station can also be reduced by about 30%. With SiC, photovoltaic systems become more powerful, fast charging stations and wall boxes have shorter charging times, and electric vehicles can drive 5-10% more range.
Peter Wawel, Head of Industrial Power Controls at Infineon, said: "To make a sustainable contribution to decarbonisation, we must consider electric vehicles holistically: from green power generation to stable and efficient grid infrastructure to storage and consumption." "With our bidirectional charging solution, electric vehicles can be charged cheaply with solar energy at home and also serve as buffer storage."
