Public Funding for Zagres Limited

This project aims to prove the technical feasibility and quantify the economics of a new Gallium Nitride (GaN) inverter technology through design, build and testing of a prototype GaN inverter for grid-connected domestic energy storage applications.

Zagres has developed a unique GaN traction inverter technology incorporating a disruptive gate drive design and a compact, light-weight, integrated inverter design with patented thermal management that eliminates the need for a second cooling loop. This project aims to prove the feasibility and quantify the economics of Zagres' GaN inverter technology through design, build and testing of a 55 kW prototype inverter for the EV traction drive system.

This project is a collaboration between Zagres Limited and Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED) and aims to study, prove and quantify the performance and economics of a newly developed Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistor (SiC BJT) technology through building and testing a prototype 50 kVA SiC BJT inverter as a building block for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission applications. The SiC BJT power module technology has voltage, frequency and thermal ratings substantially greater than existing Si-based modules, which can significantly reduce size and enhance reliability and efficiency of power electronics inverters. These benefits will contribute to reducing the cost of energy for offshore renewables.

Energy storage, both on domestic and industrial levels, is vital in enabling greater penetration of renewable electricity generation and development of smart grids, and to reduce the need for fossil fuel peaking plants. According to a Technology Innovation Needs Assessment (TINA) by the Low Carbon Innovation Group published in Aug 2012, 27.4 GW of grid-connected energy storage is needed to enable UK achieving its carbon reduction targets for 2050. Realising this capacity is rather ambitious given today’s installed capacity being less than 3 GW, mainly dominated by large-scale pumped hydro storage (PHS). There is limited space to expand PHS in the UK, so other options for storage need to be explored. Grid-connected domestic energy storage (GCD ES) can offer an important contribution to realising 2050 targets, as much as 10 GW equivalent to two million household installations, predicted by TINA. The majority of GCD ES solutions are based on batteries and their associated AC-DC power electronics inverters. Existing battery and inverter technologies are expensive and have low efficiency, preventing widespread adoption of GCD ES. Commercially available inverters for energy storage applications are made from Silicon-based Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (Si- IGBT) devices, which are costly and have moderate efficiency. The inverter is a major component of a GCD ES system and hence, its cost reduction and efficiency improvement will directly affect the system economics and net ‘cost of energy’. Zagres, spun out from Cambridge University Engineering Department, has developed a new inverter technology based on Gallium Nitride High-Electron-Mobility Transistor (GaN HEMT) devices, which promises significant improvements over Si-IGBT based inverters; its exploitation can reduce the cost and size of energy storage inverters and increase power conversion efficiency, contributing towards achieving more cost-effective energy storage systems.

The project aims to study, assess and quantify the technical and commercial feasibility of a laboratory-proven Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) technology for solar microinverters. The patented GaN device design enables 30% reduction in the fabrication cost of GaN MOSFET and 45% increase in device reliability. It can potentially reduce the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for domestic solar applications by 12% as compared to commercial Silicon (Si) based microinverters.

The project aims to study, assess and quantify the technical and commercial feasibility of a newly developed Solution-Processed Sintered Nanocrystal (SPSN) perovskite technology demonstrated on 0.3 cm2 cells with record efficiency of 15.1%. The technology promises applications in high-volume consumer electronics and electricity generation from glass windows. The SPSN technology reduces Titanium material use by x100 and enables the fabrication of perovskite solar cells on flexible substrates such as polymers. This can potentially reduce the cost of solar cells to 30% of today's commercially available Silicon-based products, enabling far greater applications to benefit from the solar energy.

Cost and efficiency are yet the main barriers to widespread adoption of solar energy, currently valued at £51 billion globally with a compound annual growth rate of 18.7% through to 2020. Commercially available solar cells, which are mostly Silicon-based, cost 0.70 £/Watt and have efficiencies between 10 to 15%, far from industry's targets of 0.05 £/Watt and 30%, respectively. Alternative solar cell technologies have recently been developed based on new materials, such as Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs) which promise substantial cost reduction, by a factor of x10 as compared to Si-based cells through utilising inexpensive materials and low-cost manufacturing processes, whilst achieving comparable or improved efficiencies. DSC devices promise a variety of applications, such as consumer electronics and electricity generation from transparent glass windows. However, existing commercial DSCs are yet expensive, hence have found very limited applications, e.g. Logitech keyboard for iPad. Zagres, spun out from Cambridge University's Centre for Advanced Photonics & Electronics (CAPE), has developed a unique and patent-pending Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology for Nanostructured TiO2 DSCs, which reduces Titanium material use by 300 times and has led to a record efficiency of 18.2%, 4.2% higher than alternative DSCs. The reduction of Titanium use, enabled by our ALD-DSC technology, and the low-cost materials synthesis and device fabrication processes can lead to a substantial 70% cost reduction when compared to widely available Silicon-based solar cells, enabling far greater applications to become economically viable, e.g. electricity generation from glass windows; its exploitation can hence contribute to enabling cheaper solar energy whilst maintaining sustainability & material security. The aim of this project is to study, assess and quantify the economics and market potentials of the potentially disruptive ALD-DSC technology for low-cost high-volume applications.

The project aims to study, assess and quantify the technical and commercial feasibility of a newly developed Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) technology based on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of nanostructured TiO2. The ALD-enabled TiO2 DSC technology reduces Titanium material use by x300 and achieves a record efficiency of 13.4%. This can potentially reduce the cost of solar cells to 30% of today's commercially available products, enabling far greater applications to benefit from the solar energy. During the project, a prototype 35cm x 35cm ALD-DSC module will be built and tested and the manufacturing processes for high-volume production will be assessed. In addition, the economics of the technology with respect to its cost and efficiency will be quantified for high-volume applications including consumer electronics and transparent glass windows.

The project aims to study and assess the technical and commercial feasibility of a new Ultra-High Voltage Silicon Carbide (UHV SiC) Thyristor technology for use in large-scale power electronics converters for electricity transmission applications, including High Voltage DC (HVDC) and Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). A small-scale prototype converter incorporating the UHV SiC Thyristor technology will be built and tested for the first time, and its performance will be assessed against commercial Silicon-based converters. In addition, the economics and feasibility of the UHV SiC Thyristor technology will be assessed and quantified for use in large-scale converters in FACTS and HVDC systems.

Zagres has developed new design and fabrication techniques for Ultra-High Voltage Silicon Carbide (UHV SiC) Thyristor technology which enables substantial reduction in manufactuing costs, as much as 40%, and operation at voltage and frequency ratings which have never utilised before in the industry. The technology, proven on laboratory prototypes, promises applications in several high-power systems, such as renewable energy generation, High Voltage DC (HVDC) systems and Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). The key benefits include reduction in cost of energy and enhancement in efficiency and reliability. The aim of this project is to assess the feasibility of the UHV SiC Thyristor technology for wind turbine applications and quantify their benefits with respect to cost of energy, reliability and efficiency. A prototype 20 kW converter will be built and then tested on a real wind turbine for a three-month period. In addition, models will be developed to evaluate the advantages of UHV SiC Thyristor converters for multi-MW wind turbines.

Reliability and cost-effectiveness are vital to the growth of the offshore wind industry and to realise the UK's targets for 2020. Power Electronics Converters are a key part of modern wind turbines, accounting for 10 % of their cost, 15 % of losses, and 12 % of failure rate. Hence improving converters' cost, efficiency and reliability is important to achieve lower Cost of Energy (CoE) from offshore wind power. Zagres' new Thyristor design based on advanced Ultra-High Voltage Silicon Carbide (UHV SiC) technology can offer a major contribution in realising these improvements: our preliminary assessments have shown 7.4% lower CoE and 12% lower failure rate can be achieved. This project will study the feasibility of UHV SiC Thyristor technology, proven in concept at laboratory scale, and assess its performance on a real 20 kW wind turbine, for the first time. The project will set the foundation for the follow-on exploitation: development and testing for larger size wind converters.