An ambitious goal has been set for the next few years and decades with the Green Deal by 2050. The requirement is: energy transition, renewable energies, phase-out of fossil fuels, abandonment of nuclear energy and phase-out of internal combustion engines in the mobility sector. A huge task, but necessary to reduce CO2 emissions and delay climate change.

The only way out of the misery is with electrical engineering (electrical energy technology and power electronics). There is no other technology available that has the potential to achieve this goal.

Renewable energies are available on our planet indefinitely. We just have to “harvest”, transport and distribute them. That sounds too good to be true. This is exactly where the fun of engineering begins. Wind, solar, geothermal power plants, energy storage and network expansion are the buzzwords of the moment here. As we all know, the devil is in the details. Electrical energy can only be transported over long distances using high and ultra-high voltages. Because the power-line losses decrease by square of the voltage increases. In principle that’s good, however high voltage requires effort on electrical insulation.

We are currently investigating the influence of foreign substances as contaminants on the insulating ability of synthetic air in the high-voltage laboratory at Mannheim University. In our test vessel we create a defined electric field between two spherical electrodes, surrounded by high air pressure of up to 15 bar at a field strength of up to 800 kV and 350 kV/cm. We go one step further. There is a heater in the pressure vessel that removes particle and substances from plastics at temperatures of up to 150 °C. First measurements confirm that small impurities significantly reduce the electrical strength. Here we keep on moving with our research to understand and control these phenomena and enable safe and green high-voltage insulation of the industry.