NEWS & TECHNOLOGY POWER
Four power trends for 2020
By Nick Flaherty
Gallium nitride chip designer GaN Systems has released
its top four power trends for 2020. The company has
been looking at the power trends for data centres, electric
vehicles, renewable energy systems, industrial motors and
consumer electronics over the next 12 months.
Electric vehicles
In 2019, it became increasingly clear that the near future of
transportation revolves around electric vehicles, and in the
longer term around autonomous vehicles that are also electric.
Today, there are 5.1 million electric vehicles on global
roads. The stage is set for a massive hit to the global energy
grid as 125 million electric vehicles are expected to be on the
roads by 2035. The evolution of the design of Chargers and
Traction Inverters will play a major role in automotive design
studios in 2020, and then onto the public roads in the years
following. In order to address the long-standing issue of ‘range
anxiety,’ the number of public electric charging stations will
continue to grow, with an increasing focus on solar power and
plug standardization.
In 2020, GaN Systems predicts:
• Designs from major automotive manufacturers will focus on
increased efficiency, power density and reduced weight with a
focus on Chargers and Traction Inverters.
• Battery technology will continue to improve and then, combined
with lighter weight vehicles, will contribute to increase
vehicle range and consumer
acceptance.
• Autonomous Vehicles
will see technology
evolution in Level
2 to Level 3 autonomy
and improved safety
systems using LiDAR
with GaN technology
used in the design
of higher power, longer
range detection systems
5G rollout
In 2019, the 5G rollout
was slower than expected,
primarily due to the issues around communications service
providers (CSPs) upgrading 4G infrastructure within 5G areas
of coverage. Nevertheless, according to Gartner research, 5G
services have already begun the U.S., South Korea, and some
European countries, including Switzerland, Finland and the U.K.
In China, 5G commercial services are now available in 50 cities,
including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according
to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. In Shanghai, nearly
12,000 5G base stations have been activated to support 5G
coverage across the city’s key outdoor areas. CSPs in Canada,
France, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Sweden, Qatar, and the
United Arab Emirates have announced plans to accelerate 5G
network building through 2020. As a result, Gartner estimates
that 7% of CSPs worldwide have already deployed 5G infrastructure
in their networks.
In 2020, GaN Systems predicts:
• 5G equipment will continue its ramp up throughout the world,
requiring greater bandwidth and power in smaller enclosures.
GaN power transistors will be the transistor of choice on the
rollout of 5G because of power density, energy efficiency, and
system size requirements for macro and micro base stations
for broadband delivery. GaN RF transistors will play an important
part for the power amplifiers of those base stations.
• Wireless through-wall with GaN means low cost equipment
can be installed and maintained economically and reliably.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) with wireless power transfer
technology solves the 5G data ‘wall problem’.
• 5G macro and micro base stations are expected to consume
at least twice the amount of power as today’s networks since
they will require both new cell sites and more power to run
existing sites.
• Using GaN technology will produce smaller and lighter equipment
with up to 50% increase in power density.
• 5G macro and micro base stations, power is reaching 2-3X
the requirements of legacy systems. While 5G will improve
energy efficiency since energy cost per bit is 1/10 its level on
4G, base stations are still energy-hungry at network-level, due
to tens of times traffic increase. 70 million micro base stations
alone are expected to be deployed by 2025.
Renewables and energy storage
In 2019, renewable energy production has not yet met the mainstream
milestone of 24/7
availability. That said,
the social attitudes, local
policies, and consumer
awareness are in place
to push this imperative
forward with the urgency
that it requires. Across the
globe, there needs to be
a focused and disciplined
mandate to address
climate change, pollution,
and the unreliability of
energy grids.
Natural disasters (e.g.
loss of power from hurricanes,
earthquakes, snow
storms) and ‘wildfire prevention’ power outages (called PSPS
for public safety power shutdown) imposed by utility companies
in California has resulted in an increasingly unreliable energy
grid:
• Highly efficient residential and commercial energy storage
systems (ESS) using GaN technology will enable distribution,
local storage, and on-demand access to renewable energy.
Both cost reduction and increasing energy security demands
will drive this.
• With the price of ESS dropping and increased residential and
commercial interest, sales of ESS will continue to rise, particularly
in states such as California and Texas.
• Smaller ‘all-in-one’ products such as solar panels with solar
inverter and battery storage built in will provides AC power
24/7 if the local power grid goes down. GaN’s efficiency in
power conversion (lighter weight and smaller ESS) will be a
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