Pan-European research initiative for intelligent power electronics launched

Over 100 representatives from 39 companies and 23 research institutions at Infineon Technologies AG for the start of the European research initiative PowerizeD. They focus on intelligence in power electronics and want to contribute to the decarbonisation of European society and protect our climate. PowerizeD is to take the sustainability and resilience of the European energy chain, from generation to application, to a new level and strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty. Sixty-two research partners from 13 European countries are involved in the major European project with an overall volume of 72 million euros. The initiative satisfies a new level of technology and relies increasingly on the digitalisation of power applications. Infineon initiated the project, is an active participant with several corporate divisions, and is the overall project coordinator.

"We have to make highly efficient use of energy if we are to achieve net-zero climate protection goals. Digitalisation can help here as a highly decisive lever for more energy efficiency," says Constanze Hufenbecher, Infineon chief digital transformation officer. "We are pleased to be able to combine our strengths with the strengths of so many excellent partners from research and business to jointly make the ambitious European research initiative PowerizeD a success."

"Power electronics is key to the energy transformation and is used anywhere and everywhere that electricity is generated, transferred and used efficiently," says Dr Rutger Wijburg, chief operations officer at Infineon. "The broad spectrum of power electronics applications makes it very important that we collaborate with partners across the boundaries of corporate entities and organisations to jointly advance Europe as innovation engine."

The project partners are concentrating on applications from the fields of energy and mobility. Seventeen demonstrator paths are concerned, among other things, with the improvement of drives for the rail industry, charging systems for the automotive sector, liquid batteries for the energy industry, and drives for the manufacturing industries. The research partners will take an interdisciplinary approach with topics including modelling and Digital Twin, Federated Learning, and reliability and sustainability.

The European Union is funding PowerizeD with approximately 18 million euros as part of the joint program for digital key technologies (Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking, KDT JU) in its Digital Agenda. The amount will be matched by funding from the respective countries' national governments. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing subsidies from Germany. A summary of all the project partners and supporting organisations is available on the project website. The project will have a three-year duration and is expected to end in December 2025.