The interest generated by the SERC Chile seminar “Next Generation Power Electronics for Photovoltaic Energy Systems” has motivated the organizers to consider a long-term outlook. Dr. Samir Kouro, leader of Line 5 at SERC Chile, describes it as follows: “The success was such that we plan to transform it into a periodic and larger-scale seminar that travels across the country and changes its thematic focus annually, in order to broaden the seminar's scope.”

This “Next Generation Seminar” series will continue at the end of this year with a meeting that will not only bring together academia and the scientific community but will also include topics of interest to the Chilean solar industry.

The “Next Generation Power Electronics for Photovoltaic Energy Systems,” organized by SERC Chile in collaboration with AC3E, was held on December 12 and 13 at the Hotel Atton in Viña del Mar and focused on solar energy conversion systems, their grid connection, and long-distance power transmission systems.

At the opening, SERC Chile director Rodrigo Palma highlighted the importance of supporting such initiatives. “Photovoltaic energy is a major topic at the national level, given its tremendous potential in Chile and the immense opportunities and impact for the country. Furthermore, power electronics is an area of great relevance for SERC, and seminars like this allow us to provide information on current research to the public sector, industry, and academia, creating meeting spaces and networks between different sectors of the economy,” he stated.

The seminar featured plenary talks by prominent national and international speakers: Tomislav Dragicevic from Aalborg University, Denmark; Michael Merlin from the University of Edinburgh; Mauricio Troviano from the Universidad Nacional de Comahue, Argentina; Patricio Mendoza from the Universidad de Chile; Javier Riedemann from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso; Marcelo Pérez and Samir Kouro from SERC; Andrii Chub from SERC Chile; Carlos Restrepo from the Universidad de Talca; Rubén Peña from the Universidad de Concepción; and Kalyan K. Sen from Sen Engineering Solutions Inc., USA.