Renewable or sustainable energy (SE) sources have attracted the attention of many countries because the power generated is environmentally friendly, and the sources are not subject to the instability of price and availability. This dissertation presents new trends in the DC-AC converters (inverters) used in renewable energy sources, particularly for photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. A review of the existing technologies is performed for both single-phase and three-phase systems, and the pros and cons of the best candidates are investigated. In many modern energy conversion systems, a DC voltage, which is provided from a SE source or energy storage device, must be boosted and converted to an AC voltage with a fixed amplitude and frequency. A novel switching pattern based on the concept of the conventional space-vector pulse-width-modulated (SVPWM) technique is developed for single-stage, boost-inverters using the topology of current source inverters (CSI). The six main switching states, and two zeros, with three switches conducting at any given instant in conventional SVPWM techniques are modified herein into three charging states and six discharging states with only two switches conducting at any given instant. The charging states are necessary in order to boost the DC input voltage. It is demonstrated that the CSI topology in conjunction with the developed switching pattern is capable of providing the required residential AC voltage from a low DC voltage of one PV panel at its rated power for both linear and nonlinear loads. In a micro-grid, the active and reactive power control and consequently voltage regulation is one of the main requirements. Therefore, the capability of the single-stage boost-inverter in controlling the active power and providing the reactive power is investigated. It is demonstrated that the injected active and reactive power can be independently controlled through two modulation indices introduced in the proposed switching algorithm. The system is capable of injecting a desirable level of reactive power, while the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) dictates the desirable active power. The developed switching pattern is experimentally verified through a laboratory scaled three-phase 200W boost-inverter for both grid-connected and stand-alone cases and the results are presented.

One of the most pressing problems nowadays is climate change and global warming. As it name indicates, it is a problem that concerns the whole earth. There is no doubt that the main cause for this to happen is human, and very related to non-renewable carbon-based energy resources. However, technology has evolved, and some alternatives have appeared in the energy conversion sector. Nevertheless, they are relatively young yet. Since the growth in renewable energies technologies wind power and PV are the ones that have taken the lead. Wind power is a relatively mature technology and even if it still has challenges to overcome the horizon is clear. However, in the PV case the technology is more recent. Even if it is true that PV modules have been used in space applications for more than 60 years, large scale production has not begun until last 10 years. This leaves the uncertainty of how will PV plants and modules age. The author will try to analyse the aging of a specific 63 kWp PV plant located in the roof of a building in Gävle, monitoring production and ambient condition data, to estimate the degradation and the new nominal power of the plant. It has been found out that the degradation of the system is not considerable. PV modules and solar inverters were studied, and even if there are more elements in the system, those are the principal ones. PV modules suffered a degradation of less than 5%, while solar inverters’ efficiency dropped from 95,4% to around 93%.

abstract: This dissertation presents a novel current source converter topology that is primarily intended for single-phase photovoltaic (PV) applications. In comparison with the existing PV inverter technology, the salient features of the proposed topology are: a) the low frequency (double of line frequency) ripple that is common to single-phase inverters is greatly reduced; b) the absence of low frequency ripple enables significantly reduced size pass components to achieve necessary DC-link stiffness and c) improved maximum power point tracking (MPPT) performance is readily achieved due to the tightened current ripple even with reduced-size passive components. The proposed topology does not utilize any electrolytic capacitors. Instead an inductor is used as the DC-link filter and reliable AC film capacitors are utilized for the filter and auxiliary capacitor. The proposed topology has a life expectancy on par with PV panels. The proposed modulation technique can be used for any current source inverter where an unbalanced three-phase operation is desires such as active filters and power controllers. The proposed topology is ready for the next phase of microgrid and power system controllers in that it accepts reactive power commands. This work presents the proposed topology and its working principle supported by with numerical verifications and hardware results. Conclusions and future work are also presented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2013

Solar photovoltaic (PV) parks have proliferated all over the world as a result of the growing demand for electricity, and especially electricity from renewables. As these parks become larger and complex, it becomes increasingly important to develop accurate and efficient mathematical models that can be used to predict their performance and optimize their design. The inverter is an essential component of a solar PV system that converts the DC power generated by the solar panels into AC power that can be used by the grid or by local loads. This research paper presents a comparative study between a pre-existing reference model and a mathematical model, developed specifically for predicting the AC power output of photovoltaic systems. In addition, a hybrid model is included for comparative analysis. The performance of each model was evaluated using real-world data installed at Glava Energy Centre in Hillringsberg, Sweden. The reference and hybrid models showed similar trends in their calculated versus actual values, but the hybrid model outperformed the reference model slightly. The actual power values were found to be similar to the simulated values in all three models. However, the mathematical model was more specific and sensitive to the inverter under consideration, resulting in a comprehensive and accurate representation of the inverter's behaviour. The models take into account the inverter's characteristics, as well as environmental elements like temperature and solar irradiance that affect its performance. The results showed that the mathematical model outperformed the other models in terms of accuracy and reliability, achieving an R2 score of 0.9226, 0.9936, 0.9789, and 0.9736 for the months of February, April, July, and October, respectively. The mathematical model also had the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) values compared to the other models. The results of this study demonstrate the value of mathematical modelling in the design and optimization of solar PV parks and provide a framework for the development of more complex models in the future.