The world is changing and we are facing a great revolution.

At the same time, we are at a critical moment, the UN has already warned us with specific dates and deadlines. If we do not change the way we behave before 2040, the global average temperature will increase at 1´5º C (with respect to pre-industrial times), climate change will not be reversed. This means: massive floods, heat waves, drastic impacts on fauna and flora; and very important economic problems. Such a world is not sustainable. A disaster. I don’t think this is what we want to leave our children and grandchildren.

Luckily, there is a plan for this not to happen, and one of the roads passes through the electric alternative. Little by little, everything that moves us and everything that transports us is going to go electric. Cars, buses, trams… and whether we like it or not, it’s already started with the scooters.

It seems that some controversy has been mounted after public knowledge of the draft Climate Change Act, where the government speaks of the cessation of any manufacture of combustion vehicles in 2040 and the ban on driving them in 2050.

 

The truth is that the same user will make this happen much sooner. In addition, many other countries around us have much more restrictive plans, covered by the commitments made since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. As I do not believe that we will find detractors to the objectives pursued of reducing CO2 and other particles, the best thing we could do is trying to understand how new vehicles work and assess when it is time to adapt.

 

 

 

Then there’s the rest of us, who are going to change our cars from combustion to electric. It’s not going to be because of impositions and we’ll buy them because we’re going to see they’re better.

The obvious is to say that electric cars do not pollute, they do not emit CO2 while rolling. Faced with this, some may say that there is CO2 emission while generating energy to circulate. Let´s think about it:

1. Electric motors have an efficiency of more than 90%, much higher than a combustion one, which needs a large amount of the energy to move the internal parts, with large losses in the form of heat.
2. And best of all, electricity can be generated in many ways. Many of them renewable: solar, wind, biomass, hydraulics…, and we are clearly going further in this.

In order to be able to move our electric cars we are going to need more energy and it must be renewable. Solar self-consumption is the perfect way:

1. Because since October 2018 it is no longer illegal in Spain (small important detail). Through 15/2018 Act on Urgent Measures for Energy Transition and Consumer Protection.
2. Because generating energy through solar panels is very economical today. Fifteen years ago, a 100W solar panel cost us 700 euros and today we would buy that same panel for less than 50 euros. Solar energy is already a very competitive way of generating energy, renewable or not.
3. Because in self-consumption, we don’t have to bring energy from far. In the traditional centralized system, for every kWh we consume at home, 2kWh are lost along the way, between transformations and transport. If we have our energy well in our factories and houses, the system is much more efficient because we use everything we generate.

All this is not new either, we have simply reached the day of technological maturity and now we have to install as many solar panels as we can, including windows and tiles.

Within this solar energy puzzle, sustainable mobility… what is our role in Power Electronics? Providing the technology to make energy transition possible.

Power Electronics is a company with 1.500 workers, exporting in more than 45 countries, whose most outstanding value is the technical service. For more than 30 years we have been thinking about sustainability and renewable energies:

1. More than 30 years manufacturing variable speed drives for greater energy efficiency with motors and industry. Among them, solar pumping.
2. More than 10 years manufacturing solar inverters and generating energy around the globe.
3. More than 5 years manufacturing battery inverters, as large as a room, for charging and discharging on demand from electric companies.
4. And finally, chargers for electric vehicles.

We have three different product ranges for the charging of these electric vehicles, such as big electric stations (fast charging); individual poles (fast charging) and domestic/commercial chargers (slow and semi-rapid).

If we focus on the products:

1. The electric station. In our concept, an electric station is a closed product, a turnkey product where from factory, it leaves fully assembled a central station, that will do all the work of conversions of energy and will manage the related thing to payments, mobile applications, connection with platforms, monitoring of client, maintenance and electrical company. And at the same time the posts (for example 10). Once the assembly is finished any electric vehicle can charge, but especially cars or buses. We’re talking about quick charges, half an hour on today’s car types.
2. The individual quick-charge poles. The whole electric station is a nice option, but today, the logical thing is to install individual poles, because with this range we cover current need, with the same functions as the electric station , but individually.
3. Semi-fast and slow chargers. Up to 22KW. We talk about chargers from one hour to seven hours of charge and adapt to any need of end customers, from simpler and cheaper, to more advanced communication, wifi, integrated protections, intelligent recharging (integration with applications).

And that would be our mobility solutions.

Undoubtedly, we are facing a great revolution, 100 years later we return to the electric road, scooters, bicycles, cars, buses …, and I can not think of a better way to get the energy needed than solar self-consumption.