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DC Systems

We are exploring whether high-voltage and medium-voltage direct current can be distributed to housing directly.

Armando Rodrigo Mor, Assistant Professor

Direct current versus alternating current

Large wind farms will appear off the coast of the Netherlands over the forthcoming years and solar power will likewise become a major part of our built and rural environment. The wind and the sun produce direct current, but the electricity grid uses alternating current. Yet most domestic devices, such as televisions, kitchen appliances and smartphones, use direct current. The ESP Lab envisages a future with an electricity system in which direct current plays the leading role and its unnecessary conversion can be skipped. That would make the grid more efficient and more stable.

From generation to your wall socket

We are not yet in a situation in which the electricity grid operates exclusively on direct current. Researchers, companies, policy makers and business developers work together in the ESP Lab to determine what is needed – from generation to your wall socket.

What cables can we develop to optimise efficiency and power? How can we use electric vehicles as mobile power storage units? Can we then connect such storage units directly to the solar panels on our roofs? These are just a few of the research questions that the ESP Lab is working on

Are you curious about how we can innovate together?

Pavol Bauer

Professor and section leader  DC systems, energy conversion & storage

5.7 million euro for hybrid energy storage systems

Intelligent Photovoltaics

The further development of solar energy is necessary to be able to generate sufficient green energy in the future. The ESP Lab will work on issues such as smart, storage and communication.

E-mobility


It is expected that one million electric vehicles will be driving around by 2025. Electrical boats and aircraft are also being developed at breakneck speed. The ESP Lab is studying how electrification of transportation fits into the electricity grid of the future, and more specifically, how it can help to accelerate the energy transition.

Intelligent energy system

In future, we will have to harmonise the demand for electricity in line with the huge fluctuations in supply. That is why in the ESP Lab we are already working on technologies to protect, monitor and control the electricity grid. Key to this is collecting and interpreting large volumes of data.