DCC+G · DC Components and Grid

Europeans economic success depends highly on a safe, reliable and sustainable energy supply. The European Community has specified its 20-20-20 targets on energy consumption savings and electricity generation from renewable sources to reduce Europe’s dependency from imported energy sources, to conserve European fossil fuels for future generations and to reduce Europe’s CO2 footprint. Buildings contribute by 40 % to Europe’s energy consumption today. The European Community has also defined the target of net-zero energy buildings for new constructions from 2020 onwards. Most significant contributions to the energy budget of such buildings come from of HVAC applications, lighting and photovoltaic (pv) electricity generation. Net-zero energy buildings are only possible with building integrated photovoltaic power systems. Nowadays electricity from photovoltaic solar systems is lost due to the multiple conversions that are inherent to the use of today's AC power grids. DC power grids will increase the efficiency to distribute solar electricity in buildings by at least 7 %. Cost of solar electricity is reduced by the same percentage. Thus DC power grids will accelerate cost reduction trend of photovoltaic solar systems beyond grid parity and hereby boosting the application in buildings and the self-consumption of solar electricity.The DCC+G project aims to impact energy efficient building infrastructure technology. To achieve this the project will:Design components and system modules for optimal electricity generation, energy transport by the DC grid and energy efficient usage by electrical appliances like eg solid state lighting.Validate the electricity usage of the integrated installation in a test building. By integrating all these aspects of electricity generation, distribution and usage we aim to reduce power consumption of all-electric buildings by 6 %, reduce the cost of solar electricity by 7 % and reduce CO2 emissions of buildings.