• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2004

This paper focuses on the electrical modeling techniques of renewable energy sources and storage devices such as batteries, fuel cells (FCs), photovoltaic (PVs) arrays, ultra-capacitors (UCs), and flywheel energy storage systems (FESS). All of these devices are being investigated recently for their typical storage and supply capabilities for various industrial applications. Hence, these devices must be modeled precisely taking into account the concerned practical issues. An obvious advantage of electrically modeling these renewable energy sources and storage devices is the fact that they can easily be simulated in real-time in any CAD simulation program. This paper reviews several types of suitable models for each of the above-mentioned devices and the most appropriate model amongst them is presented. Furthermore, a few important applications of these devices shall also be highlighted.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1042-1050
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• 2013

This paper presents a study of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for photovoltaic arrays with only one current sensor. Initially, a review of MPPT methods with only a current sensor is performed with extension for a variety of dc/dc converters. Furthermore, the same topology is developed to achieve better performance in the presence of sensor offset and environmental noise. The proposed method is robust, cost effective, and behaves well dynamically and in the steady state. After a theoretical analysis of presented approach, its validity and effectiveness are verified by simulation and experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.675-676
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• 2014

Photovoltaic (PV) systems bosed on solar energy offer an environmentally friendly source of electricity. A key feature of such PV sysem is the efficiency of conversion at which the power converter stage can extract the energy from the PV arrays and deliver to the load. The Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of the PV output for all sunshine conditions allows reduction of the cost installation and maximizes the power output from the PV panel. The proposed algorithm is to control the width of the pulse for battery charging based on the open voltage of the PV panel. As a lab results, the proposed system was implemented functions to adapt to the changes of the PV open voltage, and improved the charging efficiency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.200-211
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• 2017

Conventional boost-full-bridge and boost-hybrid-bridge two-stage inverters are widely applied in order to adapt to the wide dc input voltage range of photovoltaic arrays. However, the efficiency of the conventional topology is not fully optimized because additional switching losses are generated in the voltage conversion so that the input voltage rises and then falls. Moreover, the electrolytic capacitors in a dc-link lead to a larger volume combined with increases in both weight and cost. This paper proposes a higher efficiency inverter with time-sharing synchronous modulation. The energy transmission paths, wheeling branches and switching losses for the high-frequency switches are optimized so that the overall efficiency is greatly improved. In this paper, a contrastive analysis of the component losses for the conventional and proposed inverter topologies is carried out in MATLAB. Finally, the high-efficiency under different switching frequencies and different input voltages is verified by a 3 kW prototype.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.606-613
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• 2010

This paper proposes a novel current-based maximum power point tracking (CMPPT) method for a single-phase photovoltaic power conditioning system (PV PCS) by using a modified incremental conductance method. The CMPPT method simplifies the entire control structure of the power conditioning system and uses an inherent current source characteristic of solar cell arrays. Therefore, it exhibits robust and fast response under a rapidly changing environmental condition. Digital phase locked loop technique using an all-pass filter is also introduced to detect the phase of grid voltage, as well as the peak voltage. Controllers of dc/dc boost converter, dc-link voltage, and dc/ac inverter are designed for coordinated operation. Furthermore, a current control using a pseudo synchronous d-q transformation is employed for grid current control with unity power factor. A 3 kW prototype PV PCS is built, and its experimental results are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.218-227
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• 2011

The subject of variable step size maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms has been addressed in the literature. However, most of the addressed algorithms tune the variable step size according to two variables: the photovoltaic (PV) array voltage ($V_{PV}$) and the PV array current ($I_{PV}$). Therefore, both the PV array current and voltage have to be measured. Recently, maximum power point trackers that arc based on a single variable ($I_{PV}$ or $V_{PV}$) have received a great deal of attention due to their simplicity and ease of implementation, when compared to other tracking techniques. In this paper, two methods have been proposed to design a variable step size MPPT algorithm using only a single current sensor for stand-alone battery storage PV systems. These methods utilize only the relationship between the PV array measured current and the converter duty cycle (D) to automatically adapt the step change in the duty cycle to reach the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV array. Detailed analyses and flowcharts of the proposed methods are included. Moreover, a comparison has been made between the proposed methods to investigate their performance in the transient and steady states. Finally, experimental results with field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are presented to verify the performance of the proposed methods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.179.1-179.1
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• 2014

Si nanowires have exhibited unique optical characteristics, including nano-antenna effects due to the guided mode resonance, significant optical absorption enhancement in wide wavelength and incident angle range due to resonant optical modes, graded refractive index, and scattering. Since Si poor optical absorption coefficient due to indirect bandgap, all such properties have stimulated proposal of new optoelectronic devices whose performance can surpass that of conventional planar devices. We have carried out finite-difference time-domain simulation studies to design optimal Si nanowire array for solar cell applications. Optical reflectance, transmission, and absorption can be calculated for nanowire arrays with various diameter, length, and period. From the absorption, maximum achievable photocurrent can be estimated. In real devices, serious recombination loss occurring at the surface states is known to limit the photovoltaic performance of the nanowire-based solar cells. In order to address such issue, we will discuss how the geometric parameters of the array can influence the spatial distribution of the optical field (resulting optical generation rate) in the nanowires.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07b
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• pp.994-995
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• 2006

This paper presents a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system with direct coupled power quality control (PQC) algorithm, which uses an inner current control loop (PRT : polarized ramp time) and outer feedback control loop to improve grid power quality and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of PV arrays. To reduce the complexity, cost and number of power conversions, which results in higher efficiency, single stage CCVSI (Current Controlled Voltage Source Inverter) is used. The proposed system operation has been divided into two modes (sunny and night). In night mode, the proposed system operates to compensate the reactive power demanded by nonlinear or variation in loads. in sunny mode, the proposed system performs PQC to reduce harmonic current and improve power factor as well as MPPT to supply active power from the PV arrays simultaneously. it is shown that the proposed system improves the system utilization factor to 100% which is generally low for PV system (20%). To verify the proposed system, a comprehensive evaluation with theoretical analysis and simulation results are presented.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.722-732
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• 2014

The power-voltage (P-V) curve of photovoltaic (PV) arrays connected in parallel to bypass diodes would have several local maximum power points (LMPP) under partial shading conditions (PSC). Conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods fail to search for the global maximum power point (MPP) because the searched peak point may remain at the LMPP on the P-V curve under PSC. This study proposes an improved MPPT algorithm to ensure that PV arrays operate at global maximum power point (GMPP) under PSC. The proposed algorithm is based on a critical study and a series of observations of PV characteristics under PSC. Results show the regularity of voltage interval between LMPPs. The algorithm has the advantages of rapidly reaching GMPP, maintaining stability, and recovering GMPP quickly when the operating condition changes. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.90-96
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• 2013

We report here flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) based on Ti-mesh electrodes that show good mechanical flexibility and electrical conductivity. $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays prepared by electrochemical anodizing Ti-mesh substrate were used as photoanode. A Pt-coated Ti-mesh substrate was used as counter electrode. The photoanodes were modified by coating a $TiO_2$ porous layer onto the $TiO_2$ nanotubes in order to increase the specific surface area. To increase the long term stability of the DSSCs, a gel type electrolyte was used instead of a conventional liquid type electrolyte. The DSSC based on $33.2{\mu}m$ long porous $TiO_2$ nanotubes exhibited a better energy conversion efficiency of ~2.33%, which was higher than that of the DSSCs based on non-porous $TiO_2$ nanotubes.