Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZMThe objective of the power4re project was to develop effective solutions to increase the reliability and robustness of converters for decentralized electrical energy conversion.
The inverters used for grid feed-in in solar parks and frequency converters in wind turbines (hereinafter referred to simply as “converters”) are exposed to particularly challenging operating and environmental conditions. Today, they are among the most frequently failing system components, causing considerable costs. Based on the high requirements of these two applications, material, process and structural optimizations as well as protection concepts for inverter components were developed within the project. The focus lay on the application-specific weak points, which were determined from comprehensive field data and damage analyses and whose failure mechanisms - often caused by the combination of climatic and electrical stress - were researched in more detail as part of the project. To this end, the consortium had at its disposal a unique set of field data from wind energy applications, defective components as well as access to photovoltaic and wind energy systems for on-site measurements. In the project, suitable test procedures were also developed to evaluate materials, design modifications and protection concepts as well as to ensure component reliability.
A high disruptive potential lies in the development of a condition monitoring approach focused on relevant failure mechanisms of the driver PCBs. The developed method, which uses comb structures as condition indicators (canaries) to detect moisture- and field-induced degradation, can be integrated into the driver PCB with minimal additional costs and space requirements. This allows incipient damage to be detected at an early stage and replacing the maintenance strategy of the converters, which was previously limited to a run-to-failure approach, with preventive maintenance in order to reduce the risk of consequential damages and unplanned downtimes.
Project duration: 2020/03/01 - 2023/11/30
Funded by: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Project partners: Fraunhofer IWES, Fraunhofer IISB, Fraunhofer IMWS, Fraunhofer ISE