As Europe has set ambitious climate targets, the Green Engineering Summit will provide new ideas to shape a more sustainable future.
From heavy rains in western Germany, to heat waves affecting livestock and natural ecosystems across the continent, to fires destroying thousands of hectares of forest in southwestern France, Europe has experienced extreme weather events that can likely be attributed to climate change. The European Union has set ambitious climate and energy targets, and innovation will be crucial to accelerate Europe’s transition to a green economy.
In November 2019, the European Parliament declared a climate emergency calling on the European Commission to adapt all its proposals to a 1.5°C target to limit global warming and to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced.
In response, the EC unveiled the European Green Deal, a roadmap towards carbon neutrality by 2050.
As part of the European Green Deal, the EC has adopted a set of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. Among these proposals, Europe intends to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars after 2035.
In parallel, the EC has been working on achieving a circular economy by 2050, creating a sustainable food system and protecting biodiversity and pollinators.
“Europe was the first continent to declare to be climate-neutral in 2050, and now, we are the very first ones to put a concrete roadmap on the table,” said EC President Ursula von der Leyen in July 2021. “This is our generational task, and it must unite us and encourage us.”
Energy security, environmental degradation, soil and water loss, and climate change are the current and future grand challenges facing our society, and the next decade will be critical in defining our collective ability to reverse the trend. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would need a concerted global effort, and the moment for action is now.
This week’s Green Engineering Summit is dedicated to exploring how we can rapidly accelerate the pathway to net-zero carbon emissions. Thanks to strategies and business models related to computing, digitalization, automation, smart grid, renewable energy, and electrification, the path to a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly more tangible.
The Green Engineering Summit will bring industry experts to the table to discuss market challenges and opportunities as well the latest developments in green engineering.
Power Management: Advancing the Journey of Energy
This lecture is presented by Kannan Soundarapandian, VP and General Manager, High Voltage Power Products, Texas Instruments
The world is consuming energy at an unprecedented rate, with the desire for more data and more connected devices not slowing down. Helping the world accomplish more with less power is critical as we look toward a more energy-efficient future. Greater power density – the ability to pack more power into smaller spaces and use it more efficiently – is key to improving our electronic devices, strengthening our digital connections, upgrading our driving experiences and more. Innovations in semiconductor technology, such as power density, play a pivotal role in efficiently and safely advancing the journey of energy.
Improving EV fast charger availability and reliability using 10BASE-T1S single pair Ethernet and BLE
This lecture/tutorial is presented by Jonathan Harper, Member of Technical Staff, onsemi
Today’s rapid growth in the electric vehicle (EV) market is driving a strong demand for fast EV charging stations. Each station is built from a number of power modules which can be configured to generate the power required for one or more charger cables. Connecting each of the power modules in an EV charging station to the Internet supports data collection on charger usage and provides early warning of problems and so supports preventative maintenance programs. Further, in combination with a local BLE interface to confirm that the user is near the charging station, this Internet connection allows a simplified user interface through a smartphone application without the need for credit card or 2DID interfaces. After discussing the BLE interface, we will show how using a 10BASE-T1S transceiver on every module enables Internet access in a solution having a small footprint, low component count, backplane interconnection instead of cabling allows easy implementation of a simple and reliable intelligent sensing connection from the EV charger to the web.
Achieving breakthrough green results with quantum computing: the obstacles and how to overcome them
This lecture is presented by Nir Minerbi, Co-founder and CEO, Classiq
It is well-understood that quantum computing has the potential of delivering breakthrough results that can help with climate initiatives: better EV batteries, improved solar cell efficiency, breakthrough chemical processes, traffic optimization and much more. But both hardware and software obstacles remain in the path to achieving this breakthrough. This talk will describe the current state, the barriers to achieving the desired results, with a special emphasis on the software side of the quantum computing efforts.
GaN Power ICs Lead the Way to Sustainability and Deliver CarbonNeutral® Status
This lecture/tutorial is presented by Anthony Schiro, VP Quality and Sustainability, Navitas
In the past 150 years, humans have increased emissions from nearly zero to 35 billion tons per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Without any changes to improve climate policies over the 36.3 Gtons baseline (2021), total CO2 emissions would rise to over 46.5 Gtons/year by 2050, impacting global temperature by up to an additional 4.8°C. Over 70 countries, including USA, China, and the European Union have now set ‘net-zero’ targets. Over 319 businesses have committed to the Climate Pledge, reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early, by 2040. Using renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, allow for reduction in costs for both delivering energy and at the consuming it. Solar inverters show a clear example of cost reduction while improving efficiency and power density. Navitas’ GaNFast™ power ICs are highly-efficient, cost-effective devices that enable up to 40% energy savings, reduces and eliminates external components and heatsinks, resulting in 50% reduction in size and weight with of old silicon solutions. GaNFast power ICs are expected to improve up to 10x reduction in CO2 versus legacy silicon FETs. Additionally, every GaNFast power IC shipped saves a net 4 kg of CO2 versus legacy silicon equivalents, which has resulted in the first 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions saved.
Digitization of agricultural industry: the rise of precision agriculture
These opening remarks are presented by Yulin Wang and Brendan Beh, Technology Analysts, IDTechEx
Agriculture in the 21st century is facing significant challenges. But compared with other industries such as mining and manufacturing, agriculture has been slow to digitize. However, with the successes in automating and digitizing other industries, the digitalization of agriculture has gained significant attention and momentum over the past decade. One of the key topics in digital agriculture is precision agriculture where the technology transitions from constant rate technology to variable rate technology and finally to ultra-precision agriculture. Technology is increasingly helping farmers acquire and process data effectively, encouraging a general move towards precision agriculture. The benefits are vast. Key developments in the enabling technologies may herald another revolution in agriculture. Digital agriculture requires a suite of technologies ranging from sensory systems (e.g. RGB cameras), telecommunication (e.g. Internet of Things & 5G), software (e.g. artificial intelligence), and automation (e.g. self-driving robots) to work together and it is important to understand how these different systems would work together in practice. In this session key findings and insights from IDTechEx’s research on the key enabling technologies in digital agriculture will be presented.
Hyperspectral Cameras: ‘New Eyes’ for Precision Agriculture
This keynote is presented by Wouter Charle, Manager for Hyperspectral Imaging Technology, imec
A hyperspectral camera captures the light that is reflected by an object such as a leaf, a piece of fruit, or a field. It divides this light into narrow spectral bands, generating a “spectral fingerprint.” This, in turn, can be translated into information about the object that is not visible with the naked eye: its water content, the presence of diseases, etc. Hyperspectral cameras have evolved tremendously, from enormous lab equipment to compact and user-friendly tools. Imec, as an expert in this field, has contributed to this evolution:
In this presentation, imec will present its video-rate snapshot cameras and will highlight its importance for precision agriculture.
How a Digital Nose Protects the Climate and Improves Air Quality
This keynote is presented by Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO and General Manager, Bosch Sensortec
Time is of the essence in a forest fire. Within just a few days, a tiny spark can turn into an out-of-control blaze that consumes centuries-old trees, destroys precious habitats, and takes human lives. Sensing solutions from Bosch Sensortec can help to reduce wildfires. The BME688, a four-in-one gas sensor with artificial intelligence, is now here to help keep those flames in check. It sniffs out even trace amounts of fire gases and sounds the alarm before the fire can spread. In his presentation, Stefan Finkbeiner, will address further application areas enabled by intelligent, low-power pressure, temperature, humidity, and gas sensors to address the growing need for good air quality.
This technical paper is presented by Frank Schirrmeister, Sr. Group Director, Solutions & Ecosystem, Cadence
We are in the midst of the roaring 2020s of hyperconnectivity, fueling a golden era for semiconductors and electronic systems. Gen Z already has the largest share of the world’s population and has made it crystal clear that sustainability is critical to our future and will drive their purchasing decisions. As we are developing 5G, hyperscale computing, autonomy and electrification in automotive, industrial IoT, and AI/ML, sustainability becomes a key requirement. From 2010 to 2018, global data center energy consumption “only” grew a surprising 6%, while workloads increased more than six-fold, internet traffic increased 10-fold, and storage capacity rose by 25X. Learn about the state and role of sustainability in EDA and electronics today and key trends that will shape the next decade across design, semiconductor technology, processor, memory, and system architectures, keeping power and energy consumption in check while providing the advances in performance that the era of hyperconnectivity demands.
How Timing Devices Impact Power Consumption in IoT and Edge Applications
This technical paper is presented by Chris McCormick, Director, Product Management, Epson
Power reduction techniques are one of the major considerations for sustainable electronics products, especially for IoT devices and equipment at the network edge. Reducing power consumption in devices allows for smaller batteries or longer battery life, saves on energy costs, and reduces heat emission. Timing devices like crystals, oscillators, and Real Time Clocks are often overlooked in power design considerations and can meaningfully contribute to system power reductions. Epson will highlight specifications and functions that will help reduce power consumption. This presentation describes timing recommendations to reduce power usage in three common situations: 1) battery-operated devices that are usually powered on, 2) devices that are normally in a low power standby mode until a wake-up event, and 3) devices that are in an ultra-low power state until a normally scheduled time event.
Power Intelligence: The Path to Sustainable Always-on AI
This technical paper is presented by Tom Doyle, Founder and CEO, Aspinity
As the number of always-on connected devices explodes, so does the amount of energy that they consume to be on 24/7, even though they are only in use for a small fraction of the time – perhaps an hour a day, once a week, or maybe even never. Unfortunately, energy efficiency has not kept up with this demand and if we continue down the current path, portable always-on devices will continue to be plagued with short battery lifetimes and wall-powered devices will ultimately require more energy than we can produce. Aspinity is solving this problem by reducing always-on AI system power by an order of magnitude and balancing the demand for high performance always-on AI with the need to mitigate the collective environmental impact of billions of always-on connected devices. At scale, this power-intelligent strategy can avoid 200+ million metric tons of CO2 from being generated every year from wasted always-on energy.
Silicon Carbide Power Devices Enhance Green Alternative Energy
These opening remarks are presented by Paul Kierstead, Global Director of Power Product Marketing, Wolfspeed
The need for green alternative energy has hit a critical level. From global warming, dwindling fossil fuel supplies to health and economic impacts of coal and oil, the time is now to broadly adopt renewable energy solutions. Most immediately and significantly photovoltaic solar is prime for accelerated growth. Factors such as the expansion of battery based energy storage capability, helped along by growing EV transportation innovations, and improved power electronics based upon Silicon Carbide devices are making the transition to solar more practical and affordable from residential to utility scale installations. This session will survey the expanding market for PV solar and highlight the role and impact of adding energy storage to systems from several kilowatts to megawatts. Expanding Silicon Carbide power electronic devices and packages can be shown to provide a simple and compelling path to getting the most energy from solar and storage electronics while improving system size, weight, cost and reliability.
The EU Green Deal challenges and opportunities for Hydrogen ecosystem
This keynote is presented by Patrick Le Fèvre, PRBX, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer
We are all aware of climate challenges and the Paris agreement adopted on December 12, 2015 by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris. The ratified agreement was entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Paris Agreement embraces a vision of fully utilizing the development of technology and transfer for both improving resilience to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. in December 2019 the European Commission communicated the so-called ‘European Green Deal’, aiming to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and Hydrogen becoming an important contributor. With the present geopolitics situation, Green Hydrogen is foreseen as a suitable alternative to gas and oil but what are the opportunities and challenges ahead?
Fusion Energy with High Power Lasers: A Game Changing Technology
This keynote is presented by Todd Ditmire, Co-Founder and CTO, Focused Energy
Plasma physicists have worked for years to harness fusion – the process that powers the sun and the stars – in a controlled way to produce usable energy. If successful, one gallon of water would yield the same energy as 800 gallons of gasoline, an energy production that is completely carbon free. However, this scientific holy grail has remained elusive because of the difficulty in heating and containing the high temperature plasmas needed for fusion conditions. Fortunately, recent advances now make success appear possible in the coming few years, and several companies have been founded to realize this possibility and commercialize fusion for the first time. To date, there have been two main approaches to fusion. One involves using large magnets arranged in the shape of a donut, called a tokamak, which is pursued at the enormous International Tokamak Experimental Reactor project in France. The alternate route to fusion energy involves using large high-power lasers to compress and heat fusion fuel to ignite it. Known as Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE). In this presentation, Todd Ditmire will explain how IFE works, how it can be utilized for fusion energy, and how the required technologies have advanced significantly in the past ten years. In addition, Todd will outline the path that could lead to fusion energy production through IFE by the early 2030s.
Understanding Why Cost of Energy is the Key to Sustainability
This technical paper is presented by Alexander Lidow, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Efficient Power Conversion (EPC)
Developing economies are struggling to build energy infrastructure to support industry and bring electricity to far-flung villages. At the same time, industrialized economies are straining to balance conflicting demands for more power while decreasing the environmental impact. Finding ways to meet rising demand for energy without plundering natural resources and aggravating climate change poses one of this century’s greatest global challenges. In this talk we will link the true cost of energy to sort out real versus futile efforts to improve energy efficiency and show that wide bandgap semiconductors, such as gallium nitride (GaN) enable significant improvements in energy efficiency.
Amphenol’s PCB Connector Solutions for Energy Storage Systems
This technical paper is presented by Gijs Werner, Director of Distributor & Marketing, Amphenol FCI Basics
Energy Storage Systems (ESS) store energy and stabilize electrical performance in large grid installations as well as medium commercial to residential establishments. Lithium-ion batteries are the basic building blocks of ESS and together with inverters or Power Conditioning Systems (PCS) help the ESS manage peak and off-peak power requirements of the locality or household. Residential ESS found in smart homes come with wall-mounted batteries or modules and are coupled with AC/DC Inverters. For commercial or industrial establishments, several of these modules stack up to form racks while multiple such racks are arranged within a container which works as the commercial ESS for large smart grids. The excess power produced by renewable energy resources like solar and wind power are captured by ESS, avoiding massive frequency fluctuations, thereby boosting the reliability and power quality of the grid. Amphenol Communications Solutions provides a range of high performance PCB connectors and many more advanced interconnects for ESS.
GaN-powered & power digital engine: a game changer for a sustainable and greener world
This technical paper is presented by Thierry Bouchet, CEO, Wise Integration
Over the last decade, with the acceleration of system electrification and the demand for low carbon emissions, the market has been pushing for power supplies with better efficiency, smaller size and better cost. In addition, to keep up with the global digitalisation of our system, the power supply needs to be smarter and have more integrated functions. New technologies such as wideband gap devices (SiC and GaN) are key drivers to improve efficiency and compactness, but limited performance is achieved due to more design difficulties in fine tuning and controlling the power supply using standard analogue drivers. Digital control is the key solution to satisfy all these needs. With increasingly powerful microcontrollers available on the market, it is now possible to digitalize the power supply. The combination of Wise Integration’s WiseGan® power IC and WiseWare® digital control, simplifies the power supply architecture by reducing and eliminating external components and heat sinks. It improves performance (more efficiency and compactness) by integrating analogue functions compatible with digital control on the same GaN chip. It can be demonstrated that extending WiseGan® power electronic devices with WiseWare® digital control is an optimal and compelling way to achieve the most efficient power supplies while improving system size, weight, cost and reliability.
How lithium battery technology is powering sustainable development
This technical paper is presented by Dr. Henrik Lundgren, Senior Battery Technology Engineer, Polarium
Radvances have ensured that lithium-ion batteries will play an increasingly important role in our lives and in society. With the growing integration of inherently intermittent renewables into our energy system, the roll out of 5G technology, and the accelerating shift towards electric vehicles, an increasingly larger portion of everyday life is dependent on reliable energy storage. Dr Henrik Lundgren, Senior Battery Technology Engineer at Polarium, explains the development of lithium-ion battery technology and its key role in sustainable development, as well as gives an outlook on future technologies, driving sustainability, cost efficiency and safety even further.
Alternative energy sources and related energy storage technologies
This panel discussion is moderated by EE Times Editor Majeed Ahmad Kamran
Cleaner energy and their efficient storage are crucial to achieve a green transition. The panel will discuss the major trends in alternative energy, including energy storage technology and connected smart grids, and will expand into the new job markets these green technologies can create. The panelists will also talk about the skillsets that these new jobs in green energy markets require. Finally, what’s progress in terms of regulation and policy making of the new green technologies like energy storage and higher battery capacities.
To register for the Green Engineering Summit, click here.
Anne-Françoise Pelé is editor-in-chief of EE Times Europe.
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