Under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES), five Fraunhofer institutes are working together alongside industry representatives to develop solutions aimed at improving the reliability and robustness of inverters in photovoltaic systems and frequency converters in wind turbines.
power4re is being funded to the tune of €3.5 million as part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s internal research program PREPARE.
The project focuses on investigating in greater detail the application-specific weaknesses determined on the basis of comprehensive field data and damage analyses and their failure mechanisms. In addition to hardware modifications and protection concepts, the project is also exploring suitable testing procedures in order to assess them under typical application conditions.’
A total of five Fraunhofer institutes are involved in the power4re project: the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES (consortium manager), and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM. A team of consultants is also involved in this power4re project, representing the companies ConverterTec (formerly Woodward Kempen), SMA Solar Technology AG, and Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe.