Dare to participate in the 2026 Challenge!

When I wrote this viewpoint, I had just returned from Bodo’s Wide Band Gap Event in Munich, where we heard a lot about GaN and SiC, and more often than in previous years the experts talked about provisioning power for data centers. Using artificial intelligence normally requires at least 10 times the amount of energy than a typical web search, often even more. And the expected AI tsunami hasn’t really gained its full momentum so far. This means we will need a lot of energy to power the data centers, and energy efficiency is and will be key.

Last year, Onsemi calculated, that a 1 % improvement of the data center efficiency can save 10 TWh of energy per year; that’s a 1 with 13 zeroes, but even for engineers this is often just an abstract number. Therefore, the semiconductor manufacturer did some simple math and calculated that 10 TWh is enough energy to power 926,000 US homes for a year or to produce 16 pumpkin spice lattes for every person on earth – what a comparison! 10 TWh is also said to be the equivalent of the power consumption of more than 240 million Christmas/holiday trees for a month or to produce the heat for more than 1,800 homes for a year, however, they neither told about the size of the trees, nor did they specify whether these homes are located in Alaska or in Hawaii or at whatever location.

To make a long story short: It really matters to increase the efficiency and to decrease the power losses. With both GaN and SiC semiconductors we have the potential to work on intelligent power designs which can make a big difference, even with small steps. May be some engineers will dare to meet the 2026 challenge: Improve the efficiency of an already really efficient system by another (at least) 2.6 % within the year ‘26. Tell us about your design improvement by sending an email to alfred@bodospower.com; the best efficiency gain will receive a speaker slot at Bodo’s WBG Event 2026.

The entire team of Bodo’s Power Systems wishes you a great 2026 full of health, success and happiness. By the way: To make children happy, we have once again donated 1,000 € to UNICEF instead of sending Christmas cards. In 2026, let us all contribute to make power designs better and – of course – more efficient!

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My Green Tip of the Month: The number play with the energy equivalents of 10 TWh already shows that heating demands high amounts of energy, but today I will not talk about the benefits of heat pumps. Today I want to provide you with a life hack that I learned from my parents: Never tilt the windows, never leave the windows open only a few centimeters – especially in summer and wintertime. When you ventilate, then open the windows entirely on one side of your house or apartment and on the opposite side as well. This way the cold air can rush through the rooms and replace the warm room air with fresh cold air, which contains way more oxygene. The positive side effect: The pushed-out warm air carries out a lot of moisture (from cooking, exhaling, plants etc.), while the incoming cold air is very dry. In Germany we call this “Stoßlüften”, which literally translates into push/bump air exchange or burst/shock ventilation. If you keep Stoßlüften (yes, it gets chilly) to less than two minutes you will exchange the air, but you will not significantly cool down the walls, floors, furniture etc. as their heat capacity is much higher than the heat capacity of air. Only a few minutes after finishing the Stoßlüften it’ll be cozy and warm again – without significant additional heating. That’s the efficiency of everyday life!

Kind Regards,
Alfred