HiPower 5.0 is driven by the challenges and ambitions addressed in the Green Deal and in the Chips Act, to develop new power electronics solutions to ensure Green Deal targets and to foster a resilient and leading edge all-European Value Chain, for tomorrow’s mobility solutions. Therefore, HiPower 5.0 aims for developing highly integrated eDrive components for the automotive and maritime domain using leading edge wide bandgap semiconductors and power electronics integration technologies. This includes the development of new GaN wafer materials with superior performance, first time 850 V monolithically integrated bidirectional GaN switches, enabling new topologies and unprecedented efficiency levels of 99%, as well as 1200 V GaN switches fitting the needs of 800 V battery electric vehicles. When developing these solutions, a resource-efficient and reliable design is considered to minimize CO2 footprint and extent the lifetime of power electronics components. Firstly, multi-physics simulation with its ability to model the complex interactions between electrical, thermal, electro-magnetic, and mechanical phenomena will be used. By simulating these interactions, the system design can be optimized while performances can be predicted under various operating conditions, reducing the need for prototyping, and cutting both time and costs of development. Secondly, new ageing models and prognostics concepts will be developed to finally enable an according evaluation of the set targets of the single applications. Supported by innovations in power electronics control and cooling the lifetime and reliability will be further enhanced. To achieve these targets, the HiPower 5.0 consortium is composed along the whole value chain, starting from the GaN wafer and chips development, up to automotive and maritime Tier1/OEMs. This is accompanied by leading European universities and research organizations, guaranteeing a significant economic and scientific impact of the proposed work.

The use of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from waterborne must be minimised as fast as possible to reach a climate-neutral society by 2050. A vital prerequisite of the decarbonisation is the rapid growth of low-carbon power sources and energy storage. To achieve this, the efficient integration in the shipboard power system requires the development of high-power components and protections, and more specifically DC-DC power converters and DC switchgear. Albeit DC primary grids have been deployed for several vessels, the secondary grid has remained substantially identical to traditional solution based on AC. There is an opportunity to unlock the capabilities and functionalities of novel components for secondary grids that can improve the safety and the operations on the vessel. These components, integrated with the power converters and the protections of the primary grids, will reduce the risks of blackouts connected to faults and improve the reliability of the power supply. ALL-DC-SHIPS has devised a comprehensive strategy to address the challenges faced by shipowners, systems integrators and ship operators that includes: 1) development of new modular power converters with wide bandgap devices for primary DC grids 2) high-density power converters for secondary DC grids 3) innovative DC protection systems for primary and secondary DC grids 4) implementation of advanced algorithms for real-time ship energy management 5) rigorous testing and validation methodologies for the vessel demonstrator 6) providing recommendations for relevant use cases above 5,000 GT. ALL-DC-SHIPS will contribute to enable low-emission waterborne transport and technology transition for a resilient and sustainable future of the maritime sector.