INSPIRE

INSPIRE targets the deve­lop­ment and demons­tra­tion of breakth­rough solar inverter tech­no­lo­gies and a port­folio of trans­fe­rable inno­va­tions that will help move advanced PV systems from re­search to real-world deploy­ment across Europe. Its key objec­tives include:

• Deliver and demons­trate a next-gene­ra­tion low voltage grid-inter­ac­tive inverter with increased effi­ci­ency, reduced cost, higher relia­bi­lity, and improved grid inter­ac­tion func­tio­na­li­ties
• Deliver and demons­trate the first-of-a-kind 3 kV 3 MVA PV inverter
• Deliver a proven suite of inno­va­tions that will effec­tively support the impro­ve­ment of future novel solar inver­ters beyond the INSPIRE low and medium-voltage ones
• Effec­tively cont­ri­bute to future-oriented cyber-physical resi­li­ence

To realize these ambi­tions, the project part­ners will develop and vali­date a broad port­folio of hard­ware, firm­ware, and system-level inno­va­tions, inclu­ding partial power conver­ters with Dual Bus topo­logy, medium-voltage PV inverter tech­no­lo­gies with SiC modules, topo­logy-opti­mised heat sink design, hybrid EMI/​EMC filters with active noise cancel­la­tion, solar analy­tics for PV plant opera­tions, grid-forming control, system coor­di­na­tion and grid inter­ac­tion, design for relia­bi­lity with avail­a­bi­lity-based indices, health and condi­tion moni­to­ring with stress stee­ring, hard­ware-level cyber-physical protec­tion of inver­ters, and cyber­se­cu­rity-oriented firm­ware.

SAL cont­ri­butes to INSPIRE through adap­tive SiC damage model­ling using module data, FEM crack propa­ga­tion, damage accu­mu­la­tion, Kalman-based junc­tion tempe­ra­ture esti­ma­tion with ageing, and Model-in-the-Loop design support. SAL also works on GaN junc­tion tempe­ra­ture measu­re­ment, GaN gate drive deve­lop­ment, life­time model imple­men­ta­tion on embedded systems, hybrid filter deve­lop­ment and vali­da­tion, multi-objec­tive opti­mi­sa­tion using LCA and mission-profile-to-stress mapping, as well as health and condi­tion moni­to­ring, sustaina­bi­lity, impact assess­ment, and cyber­se­cu­rity activi­ties.