• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.472-478
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• 2022

Solar energy harvesting is practiced by various nations for the purpose of energy security and environment preservation in order to reduce overdependence on oil. Converting solar energy into electrical energy through Photovoltaic (PV) module can take place either in on-grid or off-grid applications. In recent time Lithium battery is exhibiting its presence in on-grid applications but its role in off-grid application is rarely discussed in the literature. The preliminary capacity and Peukert's study indicated that the battery quality is good and can be subjected for life cycle test. The capacity of the battery was 10.82 Ah at 1 A discharge current and the slope of 1.0117 in the Peukert's study indicated the reaction is very fast and independent on rate of discharge. In this study Lithium Iron Phosphate battery (LFP) after initial characterization was subjected to life cycle test which is specific to solar off-grid application as defined in IEC standard. The battery has delivered just 6 endurance units at room temperature before its capacity reached 75% of rated value. The low life of LFP battery in off-grid application is discussed based on State of Charge (SOC) operating window. The battery was operated both in high and low SOC's in off-grid application and both are detrimental to life of lithium battery. High SOC operation resulted in cell-to-cell variation and low SOC operation resulted in lithium plating on negative electrode. It is suggested that to make it more suitable for off-grid applications the battery by default has to be overdesigned by nearly 40% of its rated capacity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.958-963
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• 2012

Characteristics of off-grid hybrid renewable energy sources for high mountain villages are discussed. Considering reliability of electric power generation, Photovoltaic (PV)-wind hybrid and PV-hydro hybrid system are suggested. Connecting two or more villages with these hybrid systems, an extended hybrid off-grid can be formed. Sustainability of entire system is important in design of off-grid system, and income generation of the village people using the electricity should be considered.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.278-287
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• 2015

This paper proposes a novel voltage distortion approach for output filter design based on the voltage transfer function for both off-grid and grid-connected Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Inverters. The method explained in detail is compared to conventional methods. A comparative analysis is performed on an example of L and LCL-filter design. Simulation and experimental results for the off-grid and the grid-connected single phase inverter prove our theoretical predictions. It was found that conventional methods define redundant values of the output filter elements. Assumptions and limitations of the proposed approach are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

Honeycomb-shaped Ag-grid transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) were fabricated using two different processes, high density plasma etching and lift-off, and the optical and electrical properties were compared according to the fabrication method. For the fabrication of the Ag-grid TCEs by plasma etching, etch characteristics of the Ag thin film in $10CF_4/5Ar$ inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharges were studied. The Ag etch rate increased as the power increased at relatively low ICP source power or rf chuck power conditions, and then decreased at higher powers due to either decrease in $Ar^+$ ion energy or $Ar^+$ ion-assisted removal of the reactive F radicals. The Ag-grid TCEs fabricated by the $10CF_4/5Ar$ ICP etching process showed better grid pattern transfer efficiency without any distortion or breakage in the grid pattern and higher optical transmittance values of average 83.3 % (pixel size $30{\mu}m/line$ width $5{\mu}m$) and 71 % (pixel size $26{\mu}m/line$ width $8{\mu}m$) in the visible range of spectrum, respectively. On the other hand, the Ag-grid TCEs fabricated by the lift-off process showed lower sheet resistance values of $2.163{\Omega}/{\square}$ (pixel size $26{\mu}m/line$ width $18{\mu}m$) and $4.932{\Omega}/{\square}$ (pixel size $30{\mu}m/line$ width $5{\mu}m$), respectively.

• Bulletin of the Korea Photovoltaic Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.8-20
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• 2020

Nepal has huge potential of hydro and other renewable energy resources including solar energy. However, only 70% of the total population have access to electricity despite the long history of hydropower development in the country. Still more than 37% population in rural areas and around 73% population in Karnali Province, one of the least developed provinces, are living without access to electricity despite taking several initiatives and implementing various policies by government supporting electrification in off-grid rural areas. Government together with donors and private sector has extensively been promoting the off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) echnology in un-electrified areas to increase electricity access. So far, more than 900,000 households in rural areas of Nepal are getting electricity from stand-alone solar PV systems. However, there are many challenges including financial, technical, institutional, and governance barriers in Nepal. This study based on extensive review of literatures and author's own long working experiences in renewable energy sector in Nepal, shares the best practices and lessons of off-grid solar PV for increasing access to electricity in rural areas of Nepal. This study suggests that flexible financial instruments, financial innovations, bundling of PV systems for concentrating energy loads, adopting standards process, local capacity building, and combination of technology, financing and institutional aspects are a key for enhancing effectiveness of solar PV technology in rural areas of Nepal.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.716-724
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• 2017

The output voltage of an off-grid inverter is influenced by load current, and the voltage harmonics especially the 5th and 7th are increased with nonlinear loads. In this paper, to attenuate the output voltage harmonics of off-grid inverters with nonlinear loads nearby, a load current feedforward is proposed. It is introduced to a voltage control loop based on the Positive and Negative Sequence Harmonic Regulator (PNSHR) compensation to modify the output impedance at selective frequencies. The parameters of the PNSHR are revised with the output impedance of the off-grid inverter, which minimizes the output impedance of the off-grid inverter. Experimental results verify the proposed method, showing that the output voltage harmonics caused by nonlinear loads can be effectively suppressed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.735-737
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• 2017

An Off grid or remote solar electric systems are an energy supply to our home or to our companies without the utility of Grid at all. Off grid solar systems are very important for those who live in remote locations especially for developing countries where getting the electric grid is extremely expensive, inconvenient or for those who doesn't need to pay a monthly bill with the electric bill in general. The main critical components of any solar power system or renewable energy harvesting systems are the energy storage systems and its charge controller system. Energy storage systems are the essential integral part of a solar energy harvesting system and in general for all renewable energy harvesting systems. To provide an optimal solution of both high power density and high energy density at the same time we have to use hybrid energy storage systems (HESS), that combine two or more energy storage technologies with complementary characteristics. In this present work, design and simulation we use two storage systems supercapacitor for high power density and lithium based battery for high energy density. Here the system incorporates fast-response supercapacitors to provide power to manage solar smoothing and uses a battery for load shifting. On this paper discuss that the total energy throughout of the battery is much reduced and the typical thermal stresses caused by high discharge rate responses are mitigated by integrating supercapacitors with the battery storage system. In addition of the above discussion the off grid solar electric energy harvesting presented in this research paper includes battery and supercapacitor management system, MPPT (maximum power point tracking) system and back/boost convertors. On this present work the entire model of off grid electric energy harvesting system and all other functional blocks of that system is implemented in MATLAB Simulink.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

This paper proposes a control algorithm for permanent magnet synchronous generators with a back-to-back three-level neutral-point clamped voltage source converter in a medium-voltage off-shore wind power system under unbalanced grid conditions. Specifically, the proposed control algorithm compensates for unbalanced grid voltage at the PCC (Point of Common Coupling) in a collector bus of an off-shore wind power system. This control algorithm has been formulated based on symmetrical components in positive and negative synchronous rotating reference frames under generalized unbalanced operating conditions. Instantaneous active and reactive power is described in terms of symmetrical components of measured grid input voltages and currents. Negative sequential component of AC input current is injected into the PCC in the proposed control strategy. The amplitude of negative sequential component is calculated to minimize the negative sequential component of grid voltage under the limitation of current capability in a voltage source converter. The proposed control algorithm enables the provision of balanced voltage at the PCC resulting in the high quality generated power from off-shore wind power systems under unbalanced network conditions.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2016

Developments in power electronics have enabled the widespread application of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) inverters, notably for connecting renewable systems to the grid. This study demonstrates that a high-quality power can be achieved using a stand-alone inverter, whereby the comparison between the power quality of the stand-alone inverter with battery storage (off-grid) and the power quality of the utility network is presented. Multi-loop control techniques for a single phase stand-alone inverter are used. A capacitor current control is used to give active damping and enhance the transient and steady state inverter performance. A capacitor current control is cheaper than the inductor current control, where a small current sensing resistor is used. The output voltage control is used to improve the system performance and also control the output voltage. The inner control loop uses a proportional gain current controller and the outer loop is implemented using internal model control proportional-integral-derivative to ensure stability. The optimal controls are achieved by using the Sisotool tool in MATLAB/Simulink. The outcome of the control scheme of the numerical model of the stand-alone inverter has a smooth and good dynamic performance, but also a strong robustness to load variations. The numerical model of the stand-alone inverter and its power quality are presented, and the power quality is shown to meet the IEEE 519-2014. Furthermore, the power quality of the off-grid system is measured experimentally and compared with the grid power, showing power quality of off-grid system to be better than that of the utility network.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.17-25
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• 2005

A grid adaptation method within systems of chimera and patched grids is presented. Problem domains are divided into near-body and off-body fields. Near-body field is filled with curvilinear body-fitted grids that extend only a short distance from body surfaces and connected to other grid systems via chimera domain connectivity method. Off-body field is filled with patched uniform cartesian grids of varying levels of refinement. This method gives flexibility in grid generation and efficient adaptation capability. Several numerical experiments including 2D store separation were performed to show the performance of the proposed adaptation method.