Power Electronics: Key Factor Enabling Power Generation Through Renewable Energy Resources

Swati Nigam, Senior Research Analyst, Electronics and Semiconductors Practice at MarketsandMarkets explains how the adoption of power electronics is gaining momentum in the numerous verticals across the globe as it helps in the potential use of electrical energy.

Increasing concern over the environmental pollution and sustainable growth are in turn increasing the growth of hybrid electric vehicles and high-end automotive. Power electronics is a core technology that controls the energy flow from the battery to the motor and vice versa and enables this flow to be as efficient as possible.

ICT vertical is growing at a high pace with the introduction of mobile banking, cloud computing, increasing number of data centers, and others. Under the ICT vertical, power electronics is used for switching systems, wireless, satellite communication, radar, RF, and other applications. The power electronic device and systems are used in various applications in the information and communication technology (ICT) vertical. Power invertors and convertors are required in wired communication devices as well as wireless applications.

Global Themes for the Power Electronics:
In developed regions, such as the Americas and Europe, there is a drive toward the enhancement of the existing power infrastructure. In developing regions, continuous increase in power consumption has put pressure on existing power supply resources. The demand for advanced power infrastructure and concern toward using renewable power supplies are increasing globally. Governments across the globe are increasingly investing in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Many governments are constantly working towards formulating better feed-in-tariff policies to provide photovoltaic projects with grid connection convenience.

Countries such as Germany, China, Japan, India, and the US are aggressively promoting the use of solar energy among renewable energy sources. The California Solar Initiative (CSI) program, launched in 2006, was successful since this program provided incentives for solar system installations and exceeded the unit of solar generating capacity. The use of renewable energy in Germany is promoted and aided under the Renewable Energy Sources Act. Germany received appreciation from the International Energy Agency for its efforts with regard to energy transitions, setting goals pertaining to the use of renewable energy sources, and efforts to increase the renewable energy efficiency. The reduction in the cost of solar equipment has seen an increasing installation of solar panels in the residential sector.

The Road Ahead:
The growth in the number of wind farms has a significant impact on the power industry landscape. With increasing concerns about global greenhouse emissions and high growth potential of wind farms, wind energy is expected to play a crucial role in power production. There are various on-going investments in renewable energy. As per the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), approximately USD 270 billion was invested in renewable energy in 2014 worldwide. The investment in China and the US was around USD 120 billion. Power electronics have applications in both solar and wind energy systems and the increasing demand for these systems is expected to have a positive impact on the power electronics market.

There is a shift in the power electronics industry toward the integration of multiple functionalities on a single chip, which is ultimately resulting into complex designing. This shift reflects a drive in the industry for advanced and cost-optimized solutions that deliver reduced switching losses, reduction in the module size, and improved power efficiency. However, these advanced technology devices have a high switching frequency, which has its own set of design challenges. The complex design structure of control algorithms decreases the switching speed, and hence affect the overall performance of the control structure. Some devices also present cooling challenges for design engineers.

The complex designing and tedious integration process have resulted in the slow adoption of new technologies by system integrators, which in turn inhibit the growth of the power electronics market. One of the current market trends is the use of digital interfaces. However, experienced design engineers in the industry who have little knowledge about digital interfaces are more comfortable with analog technology. Conversely, digital devices enable the collection of a vast amount of data.

Most of the countries rely on power generation from fossil fuel such as coal and gas, which results in the higher emission of carbon in the environment. China developed a 55MW power plant, which is based on fossil fuel. China accounted for 46% of coal consumption followed by India with 11% in 2012. The rising CO2 emission from the power generation plants has created a need to deploy low carbon emission and rely on renewable sources, such as wind, hydel, and solar. There are many initiatives undertaken by the government for the adoption of low carbon emission technologies in the power generation and transmission sectors. Thus, with the low carbon emission attributes, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) has become an obvious choice in the market.

Regional Consideration:
The Americas is a pivotal region for the growth of the power electronics market in the applications, such as motor drives, consumer electronics, and electric vehicles (EVs)/ hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The demand for motor drives is increasing rapidly and creating the need for power electronics because of the increase of automation of industries and manufacturing capacities in Americas. In the Americas, the demand for smartphones and tablets has grown rapidly in the last five years. Moreover, the demand for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is also growing in this region.

On the other hand, the European countries, such as Germany, France, and the UK, are some of the main industrial areas of the globe. These countries have been recognized worldwide for their outstanding engineering capabilities, quality workforce, and research and development activities. Hence, these countries are expected to continue to drive the growth of the power electronics market in Europe. The strong industrial base in this region is expected to drive the demand for power electronics in the industrial vertical. Factors such as increasing concern over upgrading and replacing existing power infrastructure along with the integration of renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar in the power grids, and others are driving the growth of the power electronics market in Europe.

The power electronics market in Asia Pacific (APAC) is currently following an exponential growth curve in terms of power consumption. APAC has been the fastest region to adopt power electronics products and solutions compared to the other regions of the world. The major countries contributing to the power electronics market include China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Iran. The continuous demand for power plays a crucial role in the adoption of power electronics. Increased demand of HVDC grid in growing economies such as China and India and adoption of Greenfield projects in energy generation from renewable sources are expected to drive the growth of the power electronics market in this region. Renesas Electronics Corp. (Japan) and New Japan Radio Co., Ltd. (Japan) are some of the major manufacturers of power electronics based in the APAC region. The presence of many automotive and consumer electronics manufacturers, as well as increasing manufacturing units in APAC, is driving the growth of the power electronics market in this region.

The power electronics market is highly competitive owing to the presence of a significant number of big players and small players in the market. The players in this market have adopted various strategies to expand their global presence and increase their market shares. New product launches, mergers, acquisitions, and collaborations are some of the major strategies adopted by the market players to grow in the power electronics market.