• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.296-303
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• 2013

This paper proposes a high efficiency three-phase cascaded phase shifted H-bridge multi-level inverter without DC/DC converters for grid-tied multi string photovoltaic (PV) applications. The cascaded H-bridge topology is suitable for PV applications since each PV module can act as a separate DC source for each cascaded H-bridge module. The proposed phase shifted H-bridge multi-level topology offers advantages such as operation at a lower switching frequency and a lower current ripple when compared to conventional two level topologies. It is also shown that low ripple sinusoidal current waveforms are generated with a unity power factor. The control algorithm permits the independent control of each DC link voltage with a maximum power point for each string of PV modules. The use of the controller area network (CAN) communication protocol for H-bridge multi-level inverters, along with localized PWM generation and PV voltage regulation are implemented. It is also shown that the expansion and modularization capabilities of the H-bridge modules are improved since the individual inverter modules operate more independently. The proposed topology is implemented for a three phase 240kW multi-level PV power conditioning system (PCS) which has 40kW H-bridge modules. The experimental results show that the proposed topology has good performance.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.111-118
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• 2005

Since the residential load is an AC load and the output of solar cell is DC power, the photovoltaic system needs the DC/AC converter to utilize solar cell. In case of driving to interact with utility line, in order to operate at unity power factor, converter must provide the sinusoidal wave current and voltage with same phase of utility line. Since output of solar cell is greatly fluctuated by insolation, it is necessary that the operation of solar cell output in the range of the vicinity of maximum power point. In this paper, DC/AC converter is three phase PWM converter with smoothing reactor. And then, feed-forward control used to obtain a superior characteristic for current control and digital PLL circuit used to detect the phase of utility line.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.255-258
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• 2004

The SAR(Solar Array Regulator) of KOMPSAT(Korea Multi Purpose SATellite)-1, 2 regulates a photovoltaic power according to the duty ratio commands of the ECU. But the ECU has so many other jobs that it can not calculate the solar array condition immediately. It means the SAR cannot always generate the maximum power of a photovoltaic. Nowadays, the commercial photovoltaic systems are using a controller operated by digital processing. But the usage for satellite is not adaptable. It is not easy to find the processor of the space grade and the price is expensive. So in this paper, the simple analog MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm is proposed for the small satellite in LEO. This algorithm does not need any calculation of power by multiplication of voltage and current md a measurement of the solar array temperature. It is consist of only two sample and hold circuits, two comparators, a flip-flop, and an integrator. The proposed MPPT algorithm is verified by the simulation and experimental.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2014

This paper proposes the configuration of photovoltaic(PV) module considering the environment conditions of the PV system. The PV system is consisted of the series-parallel connection of the PV module. When shadows or changes of the radiation or an electrical characteristic in the solar cell are happened to PV system, the serious power loss will occur. If the PV module connected in series has the shadows, the output current is restricted to current of shaded PV module. Also if shadow is occurred to the parallel connection PV module, the output voltage is limited to voltage of shaded PV module. These problems are caused power loss. Therefore, this paper proposes the method that makes the output power of the PV module equalize by reconfiguration of PV module using the switching considering these environment conditions. A validity of the method proposed in this paper proves through comparing with performance of conventional PV module.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.27-30
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• 2018

The dependency of the electrical characteristics of silicon solar-cells on the depth of damaged layer induced by wire-sawing process was investigated. To compare cell efficiency with residual sawing damage, silicon solar-cells were fabricated by using as-sawn wafers having different depth of saw damage without any damaged etching process. The damaged layer induced by wire-sawing process in silicon bulk intensely influenced the value of fill factor on solar cells, degrading fill factor to 57.20%. In addition, the photovoltaic characteristics of solar cells applying texturing process shows that although the initial depth of saw-damage induced by wire-sawing process was different, the value of short-circuit current, fill-factor, and power-conversion-efficiency have an almost same, showing ~17.4% of cell efficiency. It indicated that the degradation of solar-cell efficiency induced by wire-sawing process could be prevented by eliminating all damaged layer through sufficient pyramid-surface texturing process.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.113-121
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• 2017

The researches on the silicon-based thin films are being actively carried out. The silicon-based thin films can be made as amorphous, microcrystalline and mixed phase and it is known that the optical bandgap can be controlled accordingly. They are suitable materials for the fabrication of single junction, tandem and triple junction solar cells. It can be used as a doping layer through the bonding of boron and phosphorus. The carbon and oxygen can bond with silicon to form a wide range of optical gap. Also, The optical gap of hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium can be lower than that of silicon. By controlling the optical gaps, it is possible to fabricate multi-junction thin film silicon solar cells with high efficiencies which can be promising photovoltaic devices.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.664-676
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• 2018

Given the rapidly increasing market penetration of photovoltaic (PV) systems in many fields, including construction and housing, the effective maintenance of PV systems through remote monitoring at the panel level has attracted attention to quickly detect faults that cause reductions in yearly PV energy production, and which can reduce the whole-life cost. A key point of PV monitoring at the panel level is cost-effectiveness, as the installation of the massive PV panels that comprise PV systems is showing rapid growth in the market. This paper proposes an implementation method that involves the use of a panel-level wireless PV monitoring module (WPMM), and which assesses the cost-effectiveness of this approach. To maximize the cost-effectiveness, the designed WPMM uses a voltage-divider scheme for voltage metering and a shunt-resistor scheme for current metering. In addition, the proposed method offsets the effect of element errors by extracting calibration parameters. Furthermore, a design method is presented for portable and user-friendly PV monitoring, and demonstration results using a commercial 30-kW PV system are described.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.459-470
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• 2021

This paper presents a low-cost prototype for monitoring online the maximum power produced by a domestic photovoltaic (PV) system using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The most common tracking algorithms (P&O, InCond, HC, VSS InCond, and FL) were first simulated using MATLAB/Simulink and then implemented in a low-cost microcontroller (Arduino). The current, voltage, load current, load voltage, power at the maximum power point, duty cycle, module temperature, and in-plane solar irradiance are monitored. Using IoT technology, users can check in real time the change in power produced by their installation anywhere and anytime without additional effort or cost. The designed prototype is suitable for domestic PV applications, particularly at remote sites. It can also help users check online whether any abnormality has happened in their system based simply on the variation in the produced maximum power. Experimental results show that the system performs well. Moreover, the prototype is easy to implement, low in cost, saves time, and minimizes human effort. The developed monitoring system could be extended by integrating fault detection and diagnosis algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.81-92
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• 2019

When Photovoltaic inverter is connected to grid and used as PVPCS (Photovoltaic Power Conditioning System), 120 Hz AC ripple occurs at the dc-link capacitor voltage. This AC ripple reduces the efficiency of PVPCS and shortens the lifetime of the capacitor. In this paper, we design a notch filter to remove AC ripple. As a result, the AC voltage ripple was removed from the dc link and the THD of the PVPCS output current with the notch filter was lowered. This notch filter is determined by the damping coefficient, the bandwidth coefficient, and the switching frequency. Among these, the switching frequency determines the switching loss and the size of the LC filter, and the PVPCS with the high switching frequency has a greater efficiency loss due to the switching loss than the efficiency improvement by the notch filter. Therefore, it is important to set the optimum switching frequency in the PVPCS with the notch filter applied. In this paper, THD and switching loss of PVPCS output current with notch filter are calculated through simulation, and cost function to calculate optimum switching frequency through data is proposed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.51-54
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• 2019

The high density module (HDM) has advantages for its larger active area and smaller current density. This new way of making a photovoltaic (PV) module method has benefit for increasing module power with the same installed area. Because HDM consisted with serially connected PV strings, loss of strings during the fabrication process can increase the overall production cost.1-2 This study investigates the rework conditions of the shingled strings with electrically conductive adhesives (ECA). By heating the electrically connected area of a fabricated string, cured area become soft and a string can be detached for the rework process. After rework process, a refabricated string showed 5~10% increased output power compared to before rework process and reached to the 90~95% output power compare to the undamaged strings.