Infineon Technologies and Delta Electronics use bidirectional charging technology to transform electric vehicles into energy storage devices and home emergency backup power supplies

[August 2, 2022, Munich, Germany] In the hot summer, the proportion of solar power generation in the energy mix has reached a new high. But what should we do when there is no sun on rainy days? The solution is to use bidirectional charging technology to store solar power generated from photovoltaic systems in electric vehicles and home batteries, and return it to the home grid at night or whenever needed to power home appliances. This not only protects the environment and saves costs, but also further encourages consumers to switch to zero-emission electric vehicles.

Infineon Technologies AG and Delta Electronics, a leading global provider of power and energy management solutions headquartered in Taiwan, have developed a bidirectional inverter, a three-in-one hybrid system consisting of solar power generation, energy storage and electric vehicle (EV) charging. With this bidirectional inverter, electric vehicles can not only be charged, but also used as energy storage devices or emergency backup power for homes. Currently, more and more cars are equipped with this system. In the future, the bidirectional energy transmission technology can also be used to develop new vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions.

Bidirectional charging technology

Peter Wawer, President of Infineon Technologies' Industrial Power Control Division, said: "In order to continue to promote the process of low carbonization, we must make a comprehensive consideration and overall planning for electric vehicles, covering everything from green power generation to stable and efficient grid infrastructure, to energy storage and electricity consumption. With our bidirectional charging solution, users can not only charge their electric vehicles at home with solar energy at a lower cost, but also use electric vehicles as energy storage devices."

The average household uses 10-15 kWh of electricity per day . The battery capacity of an electric vehicle's onboard battery is 30 kWh to 100 kWh when fully charged , which can theoretically be used as an emergency power solution for several days. On the one hand, it allows homeowners to obtain cheap electricity; on the other hand, it also gives homeowners more autonomy in residential power supply.

This new system provided by Delta allows a maximum continuous current of 34 A and a peak efficiency of more than 97.5% . To increase power density, Delta uses Infineon's highly efficient silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors. Compared with silicon-based semiconductors, silicon carbide compound materials can reduce energy losses by about half during the power conversion process. At the same time, the size of the charging pile can be reduced by about 30%. With silicon carbide technology, photovoltaic systems will become more powerful, charging times for fast charging piles and wall-mounted charging piles will become shorter, and the range of electric vehicles will increase by 5% to 10% .

Truly realize green travel

By the end of the 2020s, more than half of all newly registered vehicles are expected to be pure electric or hybrid vehicles. Green travel can only be truly achieved when both the automotive and energy sectors are carbon neutral, so the use of wind and solar energy has become key. However, energy storage systems must be used to smooth the volatility of renewable energy generation in order to stabilize the power grid.

Infineon's semiconductors are an important driver for green mobility. As a leading company in the field of power electronics, Infineon promotes the development of renewable energy and the efficient storage and utilization of green electricity. As the world's leading automotive semiconductor manufacturer, Infineon is a pioneer and pioneer in the electric vehicle market. Almost one in two electric or hybrid vehicles produced in 2021 uses Infineon semiconductor devices in the inverter. Infineon's power semiconductors are setting new benchmarks in the field of charging piles: the 50 kW super charging pile of the Italian company alpitronic is the first wall-mounted charging pile that can charge two cars at the same time.