Energy

Powering a sustainable world

To power a sustainable future, energy will need to be generated, stored, transported and consumed in a much more intelligent and sustainable way. Imec’s energy research strategy focuses on 4S-activities (pronounce “force”): saving energy, solar energy, switching energy, and storing energy. These activities perfectly fit in the global trend towards a smart grid.

A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology. It incorporates the use of superconductive transmission lines and efficient switching systems that reduce power losses. It integrates sources of renewable energy such as solar- and wind, and it has the capacity to store and retrieve energy. And most important, the smart grid monitors and controls appliances at consumers' homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency.

The technology challenges to power a sustainable future are huge. More renewable energy, at a reduced cost, must be generated. New energy storage systems must be developed. Huge amounts of data on the cost and consumption of energy will have to be collected, analyzed and distributed over the energy network. The network has to cope with various sources of energy, each with their own peaks and troughs. And appliances have to be managed to switch off and on depending on their knowledge of price, energy availability and consumption rates.

Solar Energy – Generating electricity from photovoltaic devices has the largest technical potential of all renewable energy sources. But to unleash this potential, to further grow photovoltaic energy generation to take up a substantial part of the energy mix, the costs of photovoltaic cells, modules and systems have to decrease by a factor of 2 to 3. 

Switching Energy – The smart grid of the future will be characterized by a contribution of a range of renewable energy sources (solar, wind, tidal ...). The variability of these sources will require extensive switching of electrical energy packets to ensure the stability and service quality of the grid. This will require power conversion (DC-DC, AC-DC, DC-AC ...) at numerous points in the grid through highly efficient, low-cost switches. In this critical domain, imec is developing power transistors on its GaN-on-Si platform. These will be key components to realize devices with high breakdown voltages that reliably and sustainably operate at high operating temperatures.

Storing Electrical Energy – The future electrical energy supply will be characterized by variations in demand and supply of electrical energy at every moment. This can be overcome by building a buffer in the form of a storage capacity for electrical energy. Such storage will also be a critical enabler for e-mobility and its link to the smart grid. In this domain, imec is working on new solutions for highly efficient supercapacitors and batteries. One road we pursue is leveraging our nanotechnology expertise to increase the surface-to-volume ratio in devices for electrical and electrochemical energy storage. In cooperation with experts on novel catalysts, our expertise is also applied for the development of solar fuels, converting energy-poor molecules to energy-rich molecules using sunlight as the energy source.

Saving energy – Smart meters will empower customers to make choices on how much energy they use and will enable suppliers to differentiate their tariffs and services. They are an important step towards reduced consumption of energy. Another obvious step towards mastering our energy future is increasing the energy efficiency of the electrical appliances we are using. The energy used for lighting purposes makes up for 20-30% of the electricity consumption in the developed countries. Important savings for lighting can be realized by evolving from incandescent light sources towards Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs).