IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine

This article analyzes two modular power converter concepts, cascaded H-bridges (CHB) and modular multilevel converter (MMC) topologies, with special attention to the latter design. Both concepts have some characteristics in common and can provide the required functionalities for power electronic transformers (PETs). This analysis will cover aspects like the number of required cells, characteristic... View full abstract»

Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) systems complemented with dedicated power electronic interfaces are a promising technology for storing energy in smart-grid applications in which the intermittent power produced by renewable sources must face the dynamics of requests and economical parameters. In this article, we review the vanadium-based technology for redox flow batteries (RFBs) and highlight i... View full abstract»

Intelligent buildings are quickly becoming cohesive and integral inhabitants of cyberphysical ecosystems. Modern buildings adapt to internal and external elements and thrive on ever-increasing data sources, such as ubiquitous smart devices and sensors, while mimicking various approaches previously known in software, hardware, and bioinspired systems. This article provides an overview of intelligen... View full abstract»

Energy efficiency in the building sector, where approximately 40% of total end-use energy is consumed [1], is a major concern today. Approximately half of building energy is used for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) [2]. A sustainable and potentially optimal solution (optimal in the context of mathematical optimization) for energyefficient buildings is to integrate renewable energ... View full abstract»

The sun has given light to the Earth since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, and through photosynthesis, it has fed almost all its life forms for at least 2.45-2.32 billion years. Photosynthesis is estimated to capture in biomass approximately 833 PWh (1012 kWh) yearly, at an average power of 95 TW-the same produced by 100,000 large-sized power stations. This is just a small... View full abstract»