Cooling eMobility and Renewable Energy Infrastructure

We spoke with Todd Cardillo, the Director of Renewables and Industrial Markets at ebm-papst, to learn more about the critical role that fans play in eMobility and renewable energy infrastructure, including EV chargers and battery energy storage systems.

Hi Todd. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at ebm-papst.

As the director of industrial and renewable markets for the Americas, I work directly with medical, renewable energy, and power generation customers to understand the goals and challenges in these industries. I combine hands-on knowledge with general market trends to help ebm-papst identify needs and develop innovative product solutions.

I received my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Haven and have been with ebm-papst for 28 years, including 15 years as an application engineer.

Please also provide us with a brief introduction to ebm-papst.

ebm-papst represents the North and South American arm of the ebm-papst Group — the world’s leading manufacturer of fans and motors. As a technological leader with core competencies in motor technology, electronics, digitalization, and aerodynamics, ebm-papst offers sustainable, intelligent, and tailor-made solutions for virtually every requirement in ventilation and heating technology.

In 2022, we opened our production facility in Telford, Tennessee, marking a significant expansion of our “local-for-local” strategy in the North American market. As the company’s second U.S. manufacturing plant, this 177,000-square-foot facility was built to meet the growing demand for energy-efficient electronically commutated (EC) fans and motors for the refrigeration, air conditioning, and ventilation markets. Our Telford plant enhances our ability to serve American customers with shorter lead times and advanced supply chain resilience.

With more than 500 employees across the Americas, our highly skilled and experienced team is ready to solve the most difficult air-moving challenges with efficiency, sustainability, and reliability in mind.

You joined us today to talk about cooling solutions for electromobility applications. What trends, technologies, and challenges are driving demand for these solutions?

The electromobility, or eMobility, industry encompasses all electric forms of transportation, including cars, buses, and trucks, along with their chargers. Its primary goal is to create solutions for reducing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, the levels of which have doubled since the 1970s in the transportation sector.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen customers investing increasing amounts of time and money into eMobility, and in particular, into EV chargers. There have been incentives for the market from policymakers as well, including the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the 2021 Build America, Buy America Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The eMobility market is ever evolving, and it’s expected to continue experiencing significant growth.

The two main components I’ll be discussing today are EV chargers and power storage units. Our primary goal in terms of thermal management is always to effectively meet the demand, as heat is the enemy of electronics. In the eMobility industry, the development and incorporation of new, more advanced components is driving increased performance, and the more electronic components that are added, the more heat is generated.

When you create heat in any type of electronic equipment, you’re going to reduce the life of the product and decrease its overall efficiency. In fact, if there’s too much heat, the product could malfunction or even fail prematurely. Normally, your fastest DC EV chargers create a significant amount of heat. This is where fans come in.

Fans are a fundamental component of active cooling, which is critical for optimizing the temperature in electronic systems. Everything from a desktop computer to a large-scale ventilation or air conditioning system uses fans to help dissipate heat and maintain a safe temperature range.

It’s imperative to keep the equipment cool, especially when demand is at its highest. For example, you can imagine an EV charger at a rest area in Arizona, where the outside temperature is 110° Fahrenheit. If a car is charged via a DC fast charger — which can provide a full charge in as little as 30 minutes to an hour — there’s a lot of heat to dissipate. Otherwise, the EV charger could overheat and cause maintenance problems or even fail.

Please tell us more about EV chargers.

There are currently three levels of EV chargers, with Level 3 DC fast chargers being the highest performing, so I’ll give you a breakdown of each.

• Level 1 EV Chargers: These low-power EV charging devices are often used in residential settings and typically take about 15–17 hours to provide a full charge.

• Level 2 EV Chargers: These medium-power chargers are typically used in commercial locations, like hotels, shopping centers, and public charging lots, and usually take around 6–10 hours to provide a full charge.

• Level 3 EV Chargers: These DC fast chargers can be found at restaurants and gas stations along major highways, as well as in public garages and parking lots. They take anywhere from 15–60 minutes to provide a full charge and can add a range of 100–250 miles to a car trip in just 30–45 minutes. Many EV owners plot where they are going to stop based on the availability of this type of charger. So, they have become a top priority for manufacturers that support the eMobility industry.

You mentioned that there’s a whole ecosystem of electromobility technologies beyond EV chargers. Please introduce us to a few.

The eMobility market includes everything from power conversion inverters to transformers to cooling management systems and much more. As the market grows, so does the need for additional infrastructure, including battery swapping stations and smart grids.

The power for EV chargers can come from the grid or renewable sources, like solar or wind. An inverter is often needed to convert the energy into usable power for homes and businesses. That power can then be used in real-time or stored in a battery energy storage system, or BESS, for later use, which can help offset costs during peak hours or provide power during an outage.

Let’s use a residential garage as an example. If you have an EV with a charger in your garage, you may have a battery pack as well. If you utilize all the power in your charger or lose electricity due to a storm, you can use the battery storage system you normally use for your car for other needs as well, such as running your refrigerator or AC unit.

What is the difference between air-cooling solutions and liquid-cooling solutions, and which is better?

Air cooling uses one or more fans to dissipate heat by blowing air on or moving air through a system to optimize the temperature. Liquid cooling routes a water-glycol mixture through a cable cooling system to lower the overall temperature and is often used in conjunction with a fan, as the cables themselves need to be re-cooled.

There are some considerations with liquid cooling. Given all the power needed for a high-performance DC charger to provide a fast charge in under an hour, you can imagine how hot the cooling cables can get. Liquid cooling systems are also typically more expensive than using fans alone and require regular maintenance, as filtering and sediment or dust can become issues. And just like in the air conditioning in your car, you have to replace the coolant and perform inspections in these systems to ensure the liquid mixture is sealed in the system with no leaks.

Air-cooled EV chargers are often favored because they can be simpler and more cost-effective to implement, depending on the charging level. Level 1 chargers create the least amount of heat, so they’re typically cooled via small axial fans or, in some cases, natural convection. Level 2 and high-powered Level 3 DC fast chargers require fans to ensure effective thermal management, and the faster the charge is, the more and/or different types of fans need to be used.

There could be as many as 20 to 25 small- to medium-sized axial fans in a DC fast charger, as well as higher pressure fans with backward curved impellers. It just depends on the power itself. That’s why it’s important to have air movers that are designed to meet each system’s specific needs. Our new technologies, based on rigorous research and development, result in higher-performing fans that can achieve high efficiency, low noise, and low vibration while remaining economically competitive.

What are some key considerations that electromobility designers should keep in mind when they’re selecting fans? Are there any special characteristics or features that they need to consider when designing fast-charging, high-performance solutions, like Level 3 EV chargers and battery storage systems?

Overall, it comes down to heat and temperature. It’s important to keep all the components within the system cool to extend the life of the charger. EV chargers come in many different types and sizes and use many different cooling concepts, including unit cooling, rack cooling, electronic cooling, and cable cooling. You can have a standalone charger, which is an all-in-one design, or a split system with a large power cube that provides power to separate smaller dispensers. Either way, all EV chargers and BESS have electronic components that need to function within their rated temperature range for safe and reliable operation. Fans help keep the system temperatures low enough to ensure optimum efficiency and performance.

Other factors are largely dependent on the requirements and performance parameters of the application at hand. Some of these considerations include size constraints, ease of integration, noise, location, and environmental protection.

What differentiates ebm-papst air-cooling solutions from competing solutions? 

With more than 60 years of experience designing and developing ventilation technologies, we don’t just “make fans” – we are air movement experts who set industry standards globally.

We are focused on efficiency, sustainability, and reliability — helping people make their entire systems more intelligent, efficient, and sustainable by focusing on resource-efficient manufacturing and reducing emissions. Our goal is to ensure a better climate for people, their applications, and our environment.

Customers will often ask for our equivalent to a competitor’s fan. We don’t simply look at that fan’s specs and offer something similar from our portfolio; we look at the application holistically and see if we have a better — more efficient, quieter, etc. — solution. People come to us for that expertise, and of course for our high quality and reliability.

Our commitment to sustainability spans several fronts. We are a part of the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a climate protection organization that evaluates and verifies the sustainability targets of participating companies. ebm-papst also participates in the EcoVadis sustainability rating and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). By taking part in these third-party initiatives, we’re ensuring that our goals are significant, impactful, and measurable.

Please introduce us to your AxiForce Series fans.

AxiForce is an innovative, new product line that incorporates our latest technology for maximum efficiency. ebm-papst AxiForce series fans feature a new aerodynamic design of the housing and fan blade. These fans are quieter than their predecessors and are available with environmental protection up to IP68. They also run at lower power, resulting in less heat generation. Ultimately, all of this adds to the lifespan of the fans.

The AxiForce series includes powerful electronics yet maintains a small footprint for the control board, which provides flexibility in design. These models have a steep performance curve and are well-suited for use in EV chargers and applications with high back pressure. They are currently available in 80, 120, and 172mm models with additional sizes to come in 2025, and they achieve pressures of up to 4.8 inches of water gauge (in. WG) or 1,200 Pascals.

Please introduce us to your new W3G300-ME46 Series fans.

The new W3G300–ME46 series fans from ebm-papst are larger than AxiForce fans at 300mm in diameter. They are ideal for outdoor renewable energy applications, like high-power EV chargers and battery storage units. These fans are typically mounted at the top of these devices, where exposure to moisture and direct sunlight is greatest. So, they are qualified using the harsh automotive ISO16750 standard, which exposes the fans to ice, rain, sun, wind, and washing substances to ensure safe and reliable operation in the most extreme conditions.

Partners in Sustainability and Beyond

For ebm-papst, sustainability, digitalization and innovation go hand in hand. Whether it’s their commitment to efficient and intelligent solutions or their latest offerings in efficient air-moving technology, they know that their purpose of “engineering a better life” is a team effort. That’s why partnering with RS makes sense — to ensure that customers in the rapidly growing eMobility and renewable energy industries have quick and easy access to the trusted products and proven technical support they need.

For more information about ebm-papst products available through RS, including AxiForce Series fans and the new W3G300–ME46 Series fans, please click the links embedded here and throughout this article. For assistance identifying, procuring, deploying, and maintaining cooling solutions optimized for eMobility and renewable energy applications, please contact your local RS representative at 1.866.433.5722 or reach out to the RS technical product support team.