Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
electric drives for hybrid vehicles, renewable energy, and grid stabilization and
regulation actions, power electronics has a long way to mature. F.C. Lee
et al
.[2]
discuss how much of the electricity consumed globally is no longer used in the form
it was generated, but is increasingly being processed through power electronic con-
verters. In 2008, the sales of power electronic equipment exceeded $60B annually,
and, furthermore, it supports over $2T in related industries.
Today, power conversion is focused on the use of higher frequency devices,
circuit topologies, high density packaging and system on chip to completely inte-
grated IPEMs. The standard cell architectures of the twentieth century are shifting
to high functionality integrated modules for application to electric machine drives
for industrial, automotive and utility applications. In the utility field, the trend now
is towards solid state transformers (SSTs) to replace bulky low frequency trans-
formers from residential pole and pad mounts to distribution and higher levels [3].
The SST concept has been described in depth by Ayyanar [4] showing the trend
towards higher frequency all solid state power transformers. Figure 6.2 illustrates
the motivation and typical topology.
60 Hz
High freq
Power
electronics
Power
electronics
Conventional transformer
Figure 6.2 SST concept (top) and architecture of SST (bottom) from Reference 4
Figure 6.2 helps illustrate the fact that even at utility power levels, there is a
growing trend to process power with electronics and to shift away from base frequency
magnetic designs. Isolation is provided by a high frequency (planar) transformer
(HFT).
6.1.1 Trends in power semiconductors
Silicon based power semiconductors will be around for a long time. After all,
predictions in the early 1990s about the demise of the ICE in the early twenty-first
