CS Applications Catapult partners with Faraday Grid to conduct market research on power electronics industry

The Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult has been appointed by UK-based Faraday Grid Ltd to conduct market research on the power electronics industry.

The CSA Catapult is a not-for-profit organization (headquartered in South Wales) focused on accelerating the adoption of compound semiconductors and on bringing applications to life in three technology areas: power electronics, RF & microwave; photonics; and advanced packaging. It works across the UK in a range of industry sectors from automotive to medical, and from digital communications to aerospace.

Faraday Grid aims to enable a future energy system architecture that can deliver clean, reliable and affordable power from anywhere to anyone across the grid. Specifically, the Faraday Grid will comprise plug-and-play Faraday Exchanger devices that dynamically balance and smooth power flowing across the energy system, providing an open platform for technologies and solutions to connect and transact and enabling better power quality and lower energy costs than a traditional electricity network.

CSA Catapult has delivered research findings around the key trends and drivers across the power electronics industry and the impact they will have on materials, sourcing and cost. Application areas that the Catapult explored included electric vehicles (EVs) and power converters.

CSA Catapult’s research found that the UK’s electric grid requirements will grow by 10-15% per annum over the next 10-15 years, and that EVs are set to drive 85% of that increased demand. Based on this data, the Catapult modeled a variety of different scenarios for the industry and provided Faraday Grid with technology, economic and supply-chain roadmaps.

“In the early 20th century, the UK led the world in developing the electricity grid. Today, the centralized nature of our electricity grid means it is not responsive to the nation’s future power needs,” says CS Catapult CEO Stephen Doran. “The Faraday Grid enables smart grid networks and decentralized energy storage, which are critical if we are to power electric vehicles up and down the country,” he adds.

“The electricity grid needs to adapt to keep pace with greater supply from renewables and increasing demand from households and businesses,” notes Faraday Grid’s chief supply-chain officer Jim Darroch. “Faraday Grid’s mission is to bring clean, reliable and affordable energy to all. For this we need to have clear foresight of device and technology trends so that we can continue to meet the demands of the future, and technologies yet to be invented.”

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Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult secures first commercial agreement

Tags: Power electronics

Visit: www.csa.catapult.org.uk

Visit: www.faradaygrid.com