Simulation model of ANN based maximum power point tracking controller for solar PV system

In this paper the simulation model of an artificial neural network (ANN) based maximum power point tracking controller has been developed. The controller consists of an ANN tracker and the optimal control unit. The ANN tracker estimates the voltages and currents corresponding to a maximum power delivered by solar PV (photovoltaic) array for variable cell temperature and solar radiation. The cell temperature is considered as a function of ambient air temperature, wind speed and solar radiation. The tracker is trained employing a set of 124 patterns using the back propagation algorithm. The mean square error of tracker output and target values is set to be of the order of 10⁻⁵ and the successful convergent of learning process takes 1281 epochs. The accuracy of the ANN tracker has been validated by employing different test data sets. The control unit uses the estimates of the ANN tracker to adjust the duty cycle of the chopper to optimum value needed for maximum power transfer to the specified load.     

Long-term field test of solar PV power generation using one-axis 3-position sun tracker

The 1 axis-3 position (1A-3P) sun tracking PV was built and tested to measure the daily and long-term power generation of the solar PV system. A comparative test using a fixed PV and a 1A-3P tracking PV was carried out with two identical stand-alone solar-powered LED lighting systems. The field test in the particular days shows that the 1A-3P tracking PV can generate 35.8% more electricity than the fixed PV in a partly-cloudy weather with daily-total solar irradiation H_T = 11.7 MJ/m² day, or 35.6% in clear weather with H_T = 18.5 MJ/m² day. This indicates that the present 1A-3P tracking PV can perform very close to a dual-axis continuous tracking PV (Kacira et al., 2004). The long-term outdoor test results have shown that the increase of daily power generation of 1A-3P tracking PV increases with increasing daily-total solar irradiation. The increase of monthly-total power generation for 1A-3P sun tracking PV is between 18.5-28.0%. The total power generation increase in the test period from March 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011, is 23.6% in Taipei (an area of low solar energy resource). The long-term performance of the present 1X-3P tracking PV is shown very close to the 1-axis continuous tracking PV in Taiwan (Chang, 2009). If the 1A-3P tracking PV is used in the area of high solar energy resource with yearly-average H_T > 17 MJ/m² day, the increase of total long-term power generation with respect to fixed PV will be higher than 37.5%. This is very close to that of dual-axis continuous tracking PV.The 1A-3P tracker can be easily mounted on the wall of a building. The cost of the whole tracker is about the same as the regular mounting cost of a conventional rooftop PV system. This means that there is no extra cost for 1A-3P PV mounted on buildings. The 1A-3P PV is quite suitable for building-integrated applications.     

风光互补电动汽车储能电站系统优化设计

通过对唐山市区太阳能和风能资源状况调查分析,对全年不同方位角和倾角上的太阳能辐射量进行模拟计算,得出南偏东9.8°方向、倾角为39.7°的倾斜面上接收的太阳能辐射量最大,其值为1.62×106Wh/m2。研究中对3kW风力发电机和1kW光伏发电系统的发电量进行了计算,并以1辆纯电动轿车为负载进行了容量配比优化,设计了风力发电系统、风光互补系统及光伏系统三种不同的方案,经过对各方案的经济性、可靠性及稳定性分析,得出最佳的设计方案为风光互补发电系统,该系统风力发电装机容量为3kW,光伏发电装机容量为8.96kW。     

Study on areal solar irradiance for analyzing areally-totalized PV systems

This paper describes the methodology for quantification of solar irradiance fluctuation in order to analyze the areally totalized PV systems, which consist of a large number of PV systems connected to each other in the optimum size of a certain community area. Two factors quantifying the fluctuation, fluctuation factor and power spectral density, and some examples are presented. Also cross-correlation analysis between nine stations' measurements were operated to estimate the extent of the power fluctuation in a certain area size and to determine optimum size of the area of areally localized PV systems.     

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based maximum power point tracking of solar PV modules for fast varying solar radiations

This paper analyses the operation of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)-based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for solar photovoltaic (SPV) energy generation system. The MPPT works on the principle of adjusting the voltage of the SPV modules by changing the duty ratio of the boost converter. The duty ratio of the boost converter is calculated for a given solar irradiance and temperature condition by a closed-loop control scheme. The ANFIS is trained to generate maximum power corresponding to the given solar irradiance level and temperature. The response of the ANFIS-based control system is highly precise and offers an extremely fast response. The response time is seen as nearly 1 ms for fast varying cell temperature and 6 ms for fast varying solar irradiance. The simulation is done for fast-changing solar irradiance and temperature conditions. The response of the proposed controller is also presented.     

Interfacing solar PV power plant with rural distribution grid: challenges and possible solutions

In rural India and similar countries, the distribution grid is radial in nature where the power generation stations are located far away from the consumption points which makes the grid weak in nature at the site of consumption. Significant penetration of solar photovoltaic within the weak distribution network can cause voltage issues such as voltage rise and dip. A comprehensive simulation method as well as a simple mathematical modelling are developed. The study reveals that the voltage quality issue occurs not only due to the considerable penetration of photovoltaic (PV) but also due to the connected load and X/R ratio of the feeder. The proposed model describes a method to estimate the permissible PV penetration ratio for the distribution feeder. This helps in the (i) selection of overhead conductors to improve the X/R ratio, (ii) utilisation of the on load tap changing facility within the distribution transformer and (iii) connecting/disconnecting flexiloads for improving PV penetration.     

A generic transient PV system model for power quality studies

Currently, the deployment of PV technology in local distribution grids is usually done in an unplanned way without performing the required studies and this may induce power quality issues as penetration increases. The utilisation of accurate simulation models is therefore of great importance in an attempt to assess the real consequences of localised PV production. A generic PV system model for transient studies, the parameters of which can be tuned using transient data is proposed. The model is tuned and validated using transient data obtained from a detailed PV system circuit topology. The main novelty of this work lies in the fact that the proposed model can be tuned in order to represent accurately the dynamic behaviour of PV systems for both balanced and unbalanced conditions. Harmonics are also incorporated into the model to highlight its capability for use in complete power quality studies. The developed model is used along with the detailed PV system model to assess the voltage transient response of a distribution grid busbar. Finally, the transient behaviour of the distribution grid busbar having different grid impedance values is also evaluated utilising the proposed model. The expected and observed results are compared by means of the Theil Inequality coefficient depicting good agreement.     

Quantifying PV power Output Variability

This paper presents a novel approach to rigorously quantify power Output Variability from a fleet of photovoltaic (PV) systems, ranging from a single central station to a set of distributed PV systems. The approach demonstrates that the relative power Output Variability for a fleet of identical PV systems (same size, orientation, and spacing) can be quantified by identifying the number of PV systems and their Dispersion Factor. The Dispersion Factor is a new variable that captures the relationship between PV Fleet configuration, Cloud Transit Speed, and the Time Interval over which variability is evaluated. Results indicate that Relative Output Variability: (1) equals the inverse of the square root of the number of systems for fully dispersed PV systems; and (2) could be further minimized for optimally-spaced PV systems.     

Application of QOCGWO-RFA for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and power flow management of solar PV generation system

A hybrid technique for solar PV array (SPV) generating system for maximizing the power to load is proposed in this dissertation. The proposed hybrid technique is the joint execution of both the Quasi Oppositional Chaotic Grey Wolf Optimizer (QOCGWO) with Random Forest Algorithm (RFA) and hence it is named as QOCGWO-RFA technique. Here, QOCGWO optimizes the exact duty cycles required for the DC-DC converter of SPV based on the voltage and current parameters. RFA predicts the control signals of the voltage source inverter (VSI) based on the active and reactive power variations in the load side. With this control technique, the system parameter variations and external disturbances are reduced and the load demands are satisfied optimally. The proposed strategy is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink working platform with three different case studies and compared with existing techniques. With these case studies, the proposed technique generates the optimal PV power of 2.1 kW.     

PV solar electricity industry: Market growth and perspective

The photovoltaic (PV) solar electricity market has shown an impressive 33% growth per year since 1997 until today with market support programs as the main driving force. The rationales for this development and the future projections towards a 100 billion € industry in the 2020s, by then only driven by serving cost-competitively customer needs are described.The PV market, likely to have reached about 600 MW in the year 2003, is discussed according to its four major segments: consumer applications, remote industrial electrification, developing countries, and grid-connected systems. While in the past, consumer products and remote industrial applications used to be the main cause for turnover in PV, in recent years the driving forces are more pronounced in the grid-connected systems and by installations in developing countries. Examples illustrating the clear advantage of systems using PV over conventional systems based, e.g., on diesel generators in the rural and remote electrification sector are discussed. For the promotion of rural electrification combined with the creation of local business and employment, suitable measures are proposed in the context of the PV product value chain.The competitiveness of grid-connected systems is addressed, where electricity generating costs for PV are projected to start to compete with conventional utility peak power quite early between 2010 and 2020 if time-dependent electricity tariffs different for bulk and peak power are assumed. The most effective current-pulling force for grid-connected systems is found to be the German Renewable Energy (EEG) Feed-in Law where the customers are focusing on yield, performance, and long-life availability.The future growth in the above-defined four market segments are discussed and the importance of industry political actions in order to stimulate the markets either in grid-connected systems by feed-in tariff programs as well as for off-grid rural developing country applications by long-term financing schemes are pointed out.A technology roadmap is presented with special emphasis on the fact that different customer needs are best served with best-adopted technologies and not vice versa. The need for the third generation PV technologies, implying that so called first (c-Si-wafer)- and second (thin-film)- generation PV technologies will be overcome in a short to medium time scale, is obsolete; in contrast, the excellent scientific ideas developed within ‘Third generation’ concepts—like utilization of hot electrons, quantum wells and nanostructures—are shown to be part of ‘New Technologies’ opening new product ideas and additional market segments. The rationale for decreasing cost by increasing productivity for all technologies as well as the interpretation of price learning curves is presented.The role of PV in the future global energy supply chain is lined out. Due to a fast growing market driven by increasing widespread acceptance of PV, a substantial PV business and creation of employment in coming decades is expected. This in turn can provide solutions for nowadays global issues, such as a global energy justice by providing environmentally benign power to billions of people, who otherwise will lack energy solutions severely.     

Measures for diffusion of solar PV in selected African countries

This paper investigates how African governments are considering supporting and promoting the diffusion of solar PV. This issue is explored by examining so-called ‘technology action plans (TAPs)’, which were main outputs of the Technology Needs Assessment project implemented in 10 African countries from 2010 to 2013. The paper provides a review of three distinct but characteristic trajectories for PV market development in Kenya (private-led market for solar home systems), Morocco (utility-led fee-for service model) and Rwanda (donor-led market for institutional systems). The paper finds that governments’ strategies to promoting solar PV are moving from isolated projects towards frameworks for market development and that there are high expectations to upgrading in the PV value chain through local assembly of panels and local production of other system elements. Commonly identified measures include support to: local production; financing schemes; tax exemptions; establishment and reinforcement of standards; technical training; and research and development.     

Life cycle assessment and evaluation of energy payback time on high-concentration photovoltaic power generation system

In this study, the environmental load of photovoltaic power generation system (PV) during its life cycle and energy payback time (EPT) are evaluated by LCA scheme. Two hypothetical case studies in Toyohashi, Japan and Gobi dessert in China have been carried out to investigate the influence of installation location and PV type on environmental load and EPT. The environmental load and EPT of a high-concentration photovoltaic power generation system (hcpV) and a multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic power generation system (mc-Si PV) are studied. The study shows for a PV of 100 MW size, the total impacts of the hcpV installed in Toyohashi is larger than that of the hcpV installed in Gobi desert by 5% without consideration of recycling stage. The EPT of the hcpV assumed to be installed in Gobi desert is shorter than EPT of the hcpV assumed to be installed in Toyohashi by 0.64 year. From these results, the superiority to install PV in Gobi desert is certificated. Comparing with hcpV and mc-Si PV, the ratio of the total impacts of mc-Si PV to that of hcpV is 0.34 without consideration of recycling stage. The EPT of hcpV is longer than EPT of mc-Si PV by 0.27 year. The amount of global solar radiation contributing to the amount of power generation of mc-Si PV is larger than the amount of direct solar radiation contributing to the amount of power generation of hcpV by about 188 kW h/(m² year) in Gobi desert. Consequently, it appears that using mc-Si PV in Gobi desert is the best option.     

Integrated standalone hybrid solar PV,fuel cell and diesel generator power system for battery or supercapacitor storage systems in Khorfakkan,United Arab Emirates

Renewable energy resources play a very important rule these days to assist the conventional energy systems for doing its function in the UAE due to high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy demand. In this paper, the analysis and performance of integrated standalone hybrid solar PV, fuel cell and diesel generator power system with battery energy storage system (BESS) or supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS) in Khorfakkan city, Sharjah were presented. HOMER Pro software was used to model and simulate the hybrid energy system (HES) based on the daily energy consumption for Khorfakkan city. The simulation results show that using SCESS as an energy storage system will help the performance of HES based on the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The HES with SCESS has renewable fraction (68.1%) and 0.346 $/kWh LCOE. The HES meets the annual AC primary load of the city (13.6 GWh) with negligible electricity excess and with an unmet electrical load of 1.38%. The reduction in GHG emissions for HES with SCESS was 83.2%, equivalent to saving 814,428 gallons of diesel.     

Design of direct solar PV driven air conditioner

Solar air conditioning system directly driven by stand-alone solar PV is studied. The air conditioning system will suffer from loss of power if the solar PV power generation is not high enough. It requires a proper system design to match the power consumption of air conditioning system with a proper PV size. Six solar air conditioners with different sizes of PV panel and air conditioners were built and tested outdoors to experimentally investigate the running probabilities of air conditioning at various solar irradiations. It is shown that the instantaneous operation probability (OPB) and the runtime fraction (R_F) of the air conditioner are mainly affected by the design parameter r_pL (ratio of maximum PV power to load power). The measured OPB is found to be greater than 0.98 at instantaneous solar irradiation I_T > 600 W m⁻² if r_pL > 1.71. R_F approaches 1.0 (the air conditioner is run in 100% with solar power) at daily-total solar radiation higher than 13 MJ m⁻² day⁻¹, if r_pL > 3.     

The prospects for cost competitive solar PV power

New solar Photovoltaic (PV) installations have grown globally at a rapid pace in recent years. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the cost competitiveness of this electric power source. Based on data available for the second half of 2011, we conclude that utility-scale PV installations are not yet cost competitive with fossil fuel power plants. In contrast, commercial-scale installations have already attained cost parity in the sense that the generating cost of power from solar PV is comparable to the retail electricity prices that commercial users pay, at least in certain parts of the U.S. This conclusion is shown to depend crucially on both the current federal tax subsidies for solar power and an ideal geographic location for the solar installation. Projecting recent industry trends into the future, we estimate that utility-scale solar PV facilities are on track to become cost competitive by the end of this decade. Furthermore, commercial-scale installations could reach “grid parity” in about ten years, if the current federal tax incentives for solar power were to expire at that point.     

Case studies of large-scale PV systems distributed around desert area of the world

To show the huge potential of PV systems, the authors have been studying the feasibility of large-scale PV plants. If a PV module cost is assumed to be 100¥/W, it gives the electricity at a cost of 7.70−13.12 ¥/kWh for a 100 MW plant size located at 6 desert sites around the world, considering the site irradiation,local labor cost, etc. for each site. In spite of the fixed, flat plate, the cost can reach a fairly low level. The station will be composed of 20 sub-units × 10 units of 500 kW optimum size sub-units.     

Frequency control by the PV station in electric power systems with hydrogen energy storage

The rapid growth of renewable energy capacity, in particular photovoltaic systems, is creating challenges associated with changing the rate of transient processes in the power system. This is due to the approach PV systems are connected to the grid using power converters and the absence of a rotating mass in the PV power plant. One of the most pressing challenge is the participation of PV stations in the process of frequency control in power systems, including in emergency modes. Simultaneously with PV power plants, it is efficient to use energy storage systems, including hydrogen ones. This is due to the fact that it is possible to obtain hydrogen for such energy storage systems using excess energy from PV power plants. The article proposes to solve the problem of frequency regulation in the power system by using an algorithm that allows to control the frequency in the power system using a synthetic inertia block of PV station, including at different levels of insolation and temperature of PV panels. The robustness of the proposed algorithm allows it to be used at different levels of power generated by the PV station, as well as in emergency modes.     

Multitude of progress and unmediated problems of solar PV in Bangladesh

The aims of this paper are to demonstrate a critical review of the multitude of progress in solar PV research and applications in Bangladesh since its inception in 1996 till 2010. Our studies show that Bangladesh has been experiencing an accelerated shift towards solar PV to meet the gap between demand and supply of electricity along with conventional electricity generation. Despite the present generation of electricity from solar PV is 15-20 MW, both public and private sectors have started several solar PV projects to generate several hundred of MW by the upcoming years. This paper has also tried to identify the critical barriers for widespread dissemination of solar PV in Bangladesh and has discussed possible ways to overcome those barriers as well.     

太阳能光伏发电系统光伏阵列保护用熔断器的选择分析

光伏发电系统是由能把太阳光能直接转换为电能的部件和子系统构成。其中的光伏阵列是将入射的太阳辐射能直接转换为直流电能的单元,太阳电池板组成的阵列与光伏阵列连接箱连接,电流经连接箱汇流后输出到逆变器或直接应用环节。太阳电池板组成的光伏阵列约占光伏发电系统总成本的70%,如何保护光伏阵列和充分提高     

PSA Solar furnace: A facility for testing PV cells under concentrated solar radiation

The Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), the largest centre for research, development and testing of concentration solar thermal technologies in Europe, has started to apply its knowledge, facilities and resources to development of the Concentration PV technology in an EU-funded project HiConPV. A facility for testing PV cells under solar radiation concentrated up to 2000× has recently been completed. The advantages of this facility are that, since it is illuminated by solar radiation, it is possible to obtain the appropriate cell spectral response directly, and the flash tests can be combined with prolonged PV-cell irradiation on large surfaces (up to 150 cm²), so the thermal response of the PV cell can be evaluated simultaneously.