Boring Power is our Future

On the day I flew from Munich to Atlanta to visit APEC, the last members of the TUM Boring team flew from Munich to Austin/Texas to take part in the “Not-a-Boring Competition 2025”. To make a long story short: The TUM Boring team won by “digging” a tunnel measuring more than 22 m (by far a new record) while the six other finalists from Asia, Europe and the US did not “dig” beyond 2 m. All 19 members of the TUM boring team are students from three Munich-based universities (TUM, HM and LMU).

Before discussing the power electronics involved, I’d like to share some background information: About a year ago the members of the TUM boring team began work on their 2025 project – always in parallel to their studies in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, technical physics, computer science, geology, environmental engineering and business administration. Even though they are all students, they planned a project on an amazing scale, created the design, manufactured the machine and completed it in time for the container to be shipped. That alone is a masterstroke, but the fact that they also demonstrated the best technical solution despite various challenges and problems is simply magnificent. I am particularly impressed by the team's holistic approach, which brought together and coordinated so many disciplines at the same time and convinced various sponsors – from ABB to Liebherr and many others to a well-known airline. I believe that this practical experience of very close collaboration across all disciplines is worth more than (almost) all the lectures at university. By the way: All 19 team members have already received job offers from the sponsors.

In terms of power electronics they used four IGBT-based 7.5 kW frequency inverters and just one three-phase power supply. All the power electronics had to be very close to the motors in order to have very short feedback cables to the controller. So the electronics needed to work properly very deep inside the tunnel, and it did very well. For space and cooling reasons they had to modify the case of the inverters, for example You can read more at tum-boring.com or on Instagram (tum_boring), where you’ll get a better idea of the sheer size of this student project.

Bodo’s magazine is delivered by postal service to all places in the world. It is the only magazine that spreads technical information on power electronics globally. We have EETech as a partner serving our clients in North America. If you speak the language, or just want to have a look, don’t miss our Chinese version at bodospowerchina.com. An archive, of every issue of the magazine, is available for free at our website bodospower.com.

My green tip of the month

Consider drilling at home in order to use the temperature of the groundwater in a heatpump. This is not cheap, but remember that about 60 % of the energy consumption in an average household is needed to heat rooms and water.

Kind Regards,
Alfred