abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) systems are affected by converter losses, partial shading and other mismatches in the panels. This dissertation introduces a sub-panel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) architecture together with an integrated CMOS current sensor circuit on a chip to reduce the mismatch effects, losses and increase the efficiency of the PV system. The sub-panel MPPT increases the efficiency of the PV during the shading and replaces the bypass diodes in the panels with an integrated MPPT and DC-DC regulator. For the integrated MPPT and regulator, the research developed an integrated standard CMOS low power and high common mode range Current-to-Digital Converter (IDC) circuit and its application for DC-DC regulator and MPPT. The proposed charge based CMOS switched-capacitor circuit directly digitizes the output current of the DC-DC regulator without an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and the need for high-voltage process technology. Compared to the resistor based current-sensing methods that requires current-to-voltage circuit, gain block and ADC, the proposed CMOS IDC is a low-power efficient integrated circuit that achieves high resolution, lower complexity, and lower power consumption. The IDC circuit is fabricated on a 0.7 um CMOS process, occupies 2mm x 2mm and consumes less than 27mW. The IDC circuit has been tested and used for boost DC-DC regulator and MPPT for photo-voltaic system. The DC-DC converter has an efficiency of 95%. The sub-module level power optimization improves the output power of a shaded panel by up to 20%, compared to panel MPPT with bypass diodes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2014

In order to meet the worldwide limits on greenhouse gases emissions, a shift from a fossil fuels to a renewable energy-based electric system is required. As this process goes on, both the power generation and consumption profiles are changing in daily pattern and magnitude, so the power grid needs to become more and more flexible in order to handle this variability. At the distribution level, photo-voltaic (PV) systems are, by far, the most widespread distributed energy resource, mostly due to the recent drop in the cost at the residential level. As more and more consumers become also producers (the so called "prosumers") and the volatile solar energy production increases, a higher number of storage systems is required to both avoid grid destabilisation and minimise the CO$_2$ emissions. At the same time, since the transportation sector is responsible for a sizeable part of the total CO$_2$ emissions, electric vehicles (EVs) are bound to replace traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. However, two main issues may arise when a large number of vehicles are connected to the existing power grid at the same time. The first issue is that the electricity required to charge them needs to be renewable, while the second is that, a rapid electrification of the existing vehicles fleet could destabilise the grid. In this context, this thesis aims at partially addressing these two issues by analysing different ways to reduce the impact of both PV systems and EVs on low (LV) and medium (MV) voltage grids. After the introduction and a chapter dealing with the most closely related research work, a novel optimisation algorithm, aimed at obtaining the optimal storage capacity for each prosumer belonging to a "renewable energy community" is presented. The algorithm minimises the dependence of the community on the main grid, which is one of the main purposes of this new model, while minimising the total installed storage capacity. The algorithm is tailored to the specific case study, because it keeps track of the willingness of the users to install a battery and keeps the voltage levels between regulatory limits in the optimisation process. In the second part instead, the effects of "uncontrolled" and "smart" EV-charging the electric vehicles with the aim of reducing the power fluctuations at the MV/LV transformer level are analysed. In particular, the interaction between PV production and EV charging is investigated, while considering the grid voltage fluctuations, the distribution line losses and the transformer loading levels at the same time. The broader impact of smart charging is also analysed by performing a simplified economic and battery wear analysis. Results help in understanding if storage devices can reduce the dependence of a renewable energy community on the main grid, and to what extent it is possible and economically viable to do so. Moreover, results quantify a realistic range of EV and PV system penetration in a LV grid that still allows for a combined minimisation of their impact on the power grid.

Photosynthetic Microbial Fuel Cell (p-MFC) research aims to develop devices containing photosynthetic micro-organisms to produce electricity. Micro-organisms within the device photosynthesise carbohydrates under illumination, and produce reductive equivalents (excess electrons) from both carbohydrate production and the subsequent carbohydrate break down. Redox mediators are utilised to shuttle electrons between the organism and the electrode. The mediator is reduced by the micro-organism and subsequently re-oxidised at the electrode. However this technology is in its early stages and extensive research is required for p-MFC devices to become economically viable. A basic p-MFC device containing a potassium ferricyanide mediator and the algae Chlorella vulgaris was assembled and tested. From these initial experiments it was realised that much more work was required to characterise cell and redox mediator activities occurring within the device. There is very little p-MFC literature dealing with cellular interaction with redox mediators, but without this knowledge the output of complete p-MFC devices can not be fully understood. This thesis presents research into the reduction of redox mediators by the micro-organisms, including rates of mediator reduction and factors affecting the rate. Both electrochemical and non-electrochemical techniques are used and results compared. Additionally, cellular effects relating to the presence of the mediator are studied; crucial to provide limits within which p-MFCs must be used. After basic characterisation, this thesis presents work into the optimisation of the basic p-MFC. Different redox mediators, photosynthetic species and anodic materials are investigated. Importantly, it is only through fundamental characterization to improve understanding that p-MFCs can be optimised.

This Ph.D work reports the studies of photovoltaic devices produced by solution processable methods. Two material systems are of interest: one is based on organic semiconductors, and another on organic/inorganic hybrid composites. Specifically, organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are made using photoactive materials consisted of a -conjugated polymer [Poly(3-hexylthiophene), or P3HT] and fullerene derivative [phenyl-C60-butric acid methyl ester, or PCBM] in a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure of donor/acceptor network. On the other hand, hybrid photovoltaic (HPV) devices are made from blend of quantum dots and -conjugated polymers. The QD material presented here are of the lead sulfide (PbS), and lead selenide (PbSe), whereas the polymers are either P3HT or Poly(3-dodecyl thienylene vinylene) (PTV)with controlled regio-regularity. For OPV devices, two different device geometries are investigated, namely, the conventional or normal structure where indium tin oxide (ITO) is used an anode, and a metal cathode is fabricated by thermal vapor deposition (TVD). In this geometry, thin layer (about 30~35nm) of poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is deposited from aqueous solution onto ITO as hole transport layer (HTL). The second geometry, called the inverted structure, uses ITO as the cathode of the device. A thin layer of cesium carbonate (Cs2CO3) (about 1~2nm) is applied over the ITO and functions as electron transport layer (ETL), thereby decreasing the work function of ITO and allowing it to function as the cathode. In this case, PEDOT:PSS is mixed with 5vol.% of dimethylsulfoxide to increase conductivity for serving as anode. Two solution processable methods, spin-coating and spray processes were investigated, and a detailed study of nanomorphology influence under different annealing conditions, different solvents and thickness are reported. The main contribution of this Ph.D. work was the development and implementation of a layer-by-layer (LBL) all-spray solution-processable technique to fabricate large-scale OPV arrays, with more than 30% transmission in the visible to near IR range. Comparing with traditional laboratory OPV fabrication based on spin-coating and using metal as cathode contact, which greatly limits transparency of solar cells and posts difficulty for large scale manufacturing, this LBL spray process solves these two problems simultaneously. This technology eliminates the need for high-vacuum, high temperature, low rate and high-cost manufacturing associated with current silicon and in-organic thin film photovoltaic products. Furthermore, this technology could be used on any type of substrate including cloth and plastic. Single cell OPV with active area of 4mm2 was used as preliminary test device to obtain fabrication parameters for multi-cell OPV arrays. Three different sizes of OPV arrays were fabricated and tested under various illumination conditions. Starting from a 4" x 4" array with 50 cells in series connection 4" x 4" substrate consisting of 50 cells with total active area of 30cm2, a scaled up 1' x 1' array was fabricated as a proof of concept, and whose results are reported. Scaled down arrays, called micro arrays, are also presented in this work. OPV micro array has the potential application in DC power supplies for electrostatic Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. The first generation micro array consists of 20 small (1mm2) solar cells connected in series for a total device area of approximately 2.2cm2. The 2nd generation micro array with 60 cells shares the same size substrates and single cell active area as the first generation. However, the 2nd generation micro array cell has a new design with reduced series resistance and improved cell occupancy by 3 fold. Infrared quantum dots (QD) such as PbS and PbSe have potential in photovoltaic applications. These solution processable quantum dots with tunable electronic properties offer very attractive approach for expanding spectral sensitivity of -conjugated polymers to infrared region of solar spectrum. However, these QDs often have defects originated from either incomplete surface passivation or imperfections in the quantum Dots. The electronic levels of defects often are within the bandgap of the semiconductor. These in-gap states are of great importance since they affect the final destiny of excitons. Continuous wave photoinduced absorption spectroscopy has proven to be a convenient and successful technique to study long-lived photoexcitations of in-gap states. Part of this Ph.D work was the investigation of a peculiar gap state found in films of PbS QDs. This gap state bears confinement dependence, with a lifetime about 2μs. A detailed analysis of the Stokes shift, temperature dependence of PL, absorption and photoinduced absorption reveals the unconventional GS is a new state of a trapped exciton in a QD film. This gap state is directly relevant to exciton dissociation and carrier extraction in this class of semiconductor quantum dots. As synthesized PbSe and PbS quantum dots usually have bulky ligands such as oleic acids or TOPO (trioctylphosphine oxide). This capping layer is necessary to prevent nanocrystals from coalescence, however, the bulky ligands hinder charge extraction from and charge transport through the nanocrystals, as well as exciton dissociation at the nanocrystal/polymer interface. Common ways to manipulate ligands include ligand wash and ligand exchange in solution, and ligand removal on films. Through this Ph.D. work, a novel method using electric field to manipulate quantum dots ligands for interface of quantum dots and polymer, which possibly could facilitate charge extraction from the quantum dots and charge transfer between quantum dots and polymers, without the need of harmful chemicals. Over four orders improvement of photoconductivity at zero bias and more than six orders improvement at 5V reverse bias in a sandwich structure quantum dots photovoltaic device, and more than 5x improve in film smoothness. After thorough fundamental study on QD optoelectronic properties, hybrid photovoltaic (HPV) device was fabricated using a blend solution of PbS QDs and P3HT. Two different solution processes are used to form the QD/polymer active layer, one is the traditional spin coating method, and another is the spray technique developed in this Ph.D. Work. Different film morphology was observed with these two methods. Although the film is slightly rougher in the case with sprayed QD/polymer active layer, the phase segregation is more distinct and with smaller domain, which is beneficial for charge transport.

abstract: A single solar cell provides close to 0.5 V output at its maximum power point, which is very low for any electronic circuit to operate. To get rid of this problem, traditionally multiple solar cells are connected in series to get higher voltage. The disadvantage of this approach is the efficiency loss for partial shading or mismatch. Even as low as 6-7% of shading can result in more than 90% power loss. Therefore, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) at single solar cell level is the most efficient way to extract power from solar cell. Power Management IC (MPIC) used to extract power from single solar cell, needs to start at 0.3 V input. MPPT circuitry should be implemented with minimal power and area overhead. To start the PMIC at 0.3 V, a switch capacitor charge pump is utilized as an auxiliary start up circuit for generating a regulated 1.8 V auxiliary supply from 0.3 V input. The auxiliary supply powers up a MPPT converter followed by a regulated converter. At the start up both the converters operate at 100 kHz clock with 80% duty cycle and system output voltage starts rising. When the system output crosses 2.7 V, the auxiliary start up circuit is turned off and the supply voltage for both the converters is derived from the system output itself. In steady-state condition the system output is regulated to 3.0 V. A fully integrated analog MPPT technique is proposed to extract maximum power from the solar cell. This technique does not require Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and Digital Signal Processor (DSP), thus reduces area and power overhead. The proposed MPPT techniques includes a switch capacitor based power sensor which senses current of boost converter without using any sense resistor. A complete system is designed which starts from 0.3 V solar cell voltage and provides regulated 3.0 V system output. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2015

Reliability as an engineering discipline has grown in importance in systems development and manufacturing since its inception in the 1950s. This growth in importance is driven by several factors, including increasing complexity and sophistication of systems, public awareness of and insistence on product quality and availability, new laws and regulations concerning product liability, government contractual requirements to meet reliability and maintainability performance specifications, and profit considerations resulting from the high cost of failures. Such failures lead to increased costs for warranty programs, increased rate of repairs, and loss of sales because of decreased customer satisfaction. Reliability engineering is the discipline of ensuring that a product or system will work properly during a specified period of time. Therefore, the aim of reliability engineering is to delay the failures and then to maximize the life of the product. Studying the reliability of renewable energy systems in particular became more important in the last decade because of the need to find long life reliable substitutions to fossil fuels. One of these systems that recently has gained increasing interest because of research and development in the field of sustainable solar energy systems is Concentrated PhotoVoltaic (CPV) systems. These advancements could enable: 1) Higher conversion efficiencies, 2) Lower capital costs, and 3) Better reliability than competing products. The CPV system architecture creates the potential for higher conversion efficiencies as contrasted with other sustainable solar energy systems such as flat plate PhotoVoltaic (PV) system. Because CPV systems require significantly less silicon than other sustainable solar energy systems, their resulting lower capital costs was viewed as the technology’s major potential advantage over flat-plate PV, particularly for utility-scale applications. That argument has become less relevant with the dramatic reduction in silicon prices over the last several years. Increasing the reliability of the CPV systems could potentially significantly decrease the cost of electricity produced by these systems. If so, this could have a great influence on the economy and the cost of life especially in areas that have substantial amount of solar radiation like Arizona in the United States. Therefore, the present research explores various extent reliability methods, synthesizes a new method, and applies that method to a specific CPV design. The results show that applying this method to the design of the considered system should result in a significant improvement in CPV system reliability. Finally, the present research considers the opportunities for extending this work on different types of systems including software systems.

In recent years, the world has seen a significant growth in energy requirements. To meet this requirement and also driven by environmental issues with conventional power plants, engineers and consumers have started a growing trend in the deployment of distributed renewable power plants such as photovoltaic (PV) power plants and wind turbines. The introduction of distributed generation pose some serious issues for power system protection and control engineers. One of the major challenges are power system protection. Conventional distribution power systems take on a radial topology, with current flowing from the substation to the loads, yielded unidirectional power flow. With the addition of distributed generation, power flow and fault current are becoming bi-directional. This causes loss of coordination between conventional overcurrent protection devices. Adding power sources downstream of protection devices might also cause the upstream protection device to be blinded from faults. Conventional overcurrent protection is mainly based on the fault levels at specific points along the network. By adding renewable sources, the fault levels increase and become dynamic, based on weather conditions. In this dissertation, power system faults are modelled with sequence components and simulated with Digsilent PowerFactory power system software. The modeling of several faults under varying power system parameters are combined with different photovoltaic penetration levels to establish a framework under which protection challenges can be better defined and understood. Understanding the effects of distributed generation on three phase power systems are simplified by modeling power systems with sequence networks. The models for asymmetrical faults shows the limited affect which distributed generation has on power system protection. The ability of inverter based distributed generators to provide active control of phase current, irrespective of unbalanced voltage occurring in the network limits their influence during asymmetrical faults. Based on this unique ability of inverter based distributed generators (of which PV energy sources are the main type), solutions are proposed to mitigate or prevent the occurrence of loss of protection under increasing penetration levels of distributed generation. The solutions include using zero and negative sequence overcurrent protection, and adapting the undervoltage disconnection time of distributed generators based on the unique network parameters where it is used. Repeating the simulations after integrating the proposed solutions show improved results and better protection coordination under high penetration levels of PV based distributed generation. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

The electricity generation composition in the South African national grid has changed in recent years from mostly thermal generation to a combination of thermal generation plants and a variety of plants owned and operated by Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers (REIPPs). The need arises to determine whether the existing planning and design guidelines of distribution networks in South Africa are sufficient in terms of equipment specifications and general sizing and rating principles, used during the network planning process, under increasing penetration levels of embedded generation. The correlation between increases in embedded generation penetration levels and voltage variation, unbalance and harmonic emissions are determined by simulating various operating scenarios of varying load and short circuit level for penetration levels of 10%, 25% and 40%. The existing distribution grid planning standard NRS 097 allows for a 25% penetration level where several consumers share one feeder or distribution transformer. Some of the limits contained in the South African power quality standards NRS 048 and the distribution grid planning guidelines NRS 097 are exceeded when penetration levels of grid connected Photovoltaic (PV) generation exceeds certain levels. - Switching embedded generation in or out of service does not cause voltage variations that exceed the planning limit of 3% at the shared feeder. - Voltage unbalance due to embedded generation connected to the same phase does not cause the compatibility limit of 3% to be exceeded. - Current unbalance should be monitored as it is very likely that equipment ratings may be exceeded when the integration of embedded generation is not coordinated. - Voltage harmonic limits of the odd harmonic which are multiples of 3 are exceeded. - Current harmonic planning limits of several harmonics are exceeded for penetration levels of 25%. The criteria and limits contained in the standards and guidelines relating to current unbalance and harmonic currents should be reviewed to ensure that future grids with high penetration levels of embedded generation can withstand the inherent power quality challenges without having an adverse effect on distribution equipment. Distribution transformers can age faster when they are subjected to harmonic currents and voltages exceeding their design parameters [12]. The distribution transformer isolates the Medium Voltage (MV) distribution grid from the 400 V residential grid. The voltage harmonics and voltage unbalance on the Low Voltage (LV) grid therefore do not permeate to the MV grid. Proposed future work includes translating the qualitative suggestions made in this dissertation into quantitative terms that can be included in revisions of the distribution equipment standards and grid planning guidelines. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

The access to ideal heating and power techniques has always been highly thought after.This is mainly due to the development in housing architecture and the cold nature of certain regions which has led to an increase in popularity of the heating market and modernised heating technologies. The current DH systems make use of CHP plants for thegeneration of power and electricity. These CHP plants for the most part, are powered through biomass and during winter periods the demand for heating is highly increased.The biggest issue with relying on biomass solely is the constant need to burn wasteproducts which not only results in increasing the demand for consuming in more waste,but also results in producing remains (by-products) that cannot be broken down further and hence might require the utilization of land-space (landfills) for their disposal. Solar modules on the other hand, have gained increased popularity in the recent age. This is mainly due their extremely high flexible ability in converting solar irradiance intoelectrical and thermal energies. This study will try to provide a comprehensive study intothe utilization of a hybrid solar system that combines a standard PV module with a flat-plate collector through estimating the energy demands for a simple housing within Sweden and China. This will be the main aim of the study, however the possibilities of integrating this hybrid solar system alongside current DH systems will mostly be discussed in the first sections to proof the possibility of executing such a system. The theoretical work carried out will only include simulations of having just separate,standalone PV and flat-plate collector modules. However, designing a hybrid solar and DH system will not be the major focus of this study. The results at the end of the report,concluded that the electrical production for the Swedish case were noticeably higher thanthat of the Chinese case in spite of maintaining the same load values through both cases and higher solar irradiation for the Chinese case. Due to PVsyst simulation constraints,the results show that the investment cost of the Swedish PV (electrical component) module was about 3.6 times greater than that of the Chinese which could possibly mean that the Swedish case has a bigger PV module area than the Chinese case in order to meetel ectricity demand monthly. However, when it came to the thermal energy production, it was possible to assume different collectors cases and hence an area of 7m2 was chosen for the Swedish perspective while an area of 4m2 has been considered for the Chinese case. The thermal useful energy values where then compared with heating demands for both of the cases. Finally, the thesis concluded that there was no requirement for having an integrated DH network within the standalone houses, having small electricity and heat demand and hence, it might be more beneficial to have an integrated DH and solar system within more densely populated housing areas. / Efterfrågan på tillgången till idealisk uppvärmning och effektiva tekniker har alltid varithög. Detta beror främst på utvecklingen inom arkitektur och den kalla naturen i vissaregioner som har lett till en ökad popularitet av värmemarknaden och moderniseradevärmeteknologiert. De nuvarande fjärrvärme-systemen använder kraftvärmeverk förproduktion av kraft och elektricitet. Dessa kraftvärmeanläggningar drivs till stor delgenom biomassa och under vinterperioderna ökar efterfrågan på uppvärmning mycket.Det största problemet med att förlita sig på biomassa enbart är det ständiga behovet avatt bränna avfallsprodukter som inte bara resulterar i att öka efterfrågan på konsumtionav fler avfallsprodukter utan också resulterar i att producera rester (biprodukter) sominte kan brytas ned ytterligare och därmed kan kräva användning av markutrymme fördeponering. solar-moduler å andra sidan har ökat popularitet under de senaste åren.Detta beror främst på deras extremt höga flexibla förmåga att konvertera solbestrålningtill elektrisk och termisk energi. Denna studie kommer att försöka tillhandahålla enomfattande studie av användningen av ett hybridsolsystem som kombinerar en standardPV-modul med en flatplate collector för att simulera en solar-modul samt caselera enfristående version genom att uppskatta energikraven för en enkel bostad i Sverige ochKina. Detta kommer att vara huvudmålet med studien, men möjligheterna att integreradetta hybrida solsystem tillsammans med nuvarande DH-system kommer mestadels attdiskuteras i de första avsnitten för att bevisa möjligheten att utföra ett sådant system. Detteoretiska arbetet som utförs kommer endast att innehålla simuleringar av att bara ha enfristående PV- och flatplate collector module, men att utforma ett hybrid sol- och DHsystemkommer inte att vara huvudfokus för denna studie. Resultaten i slutet avrapporten drog överraskande slutsatsen att den elektriska produktionen för den svenskacaselen var märkbart högre än den för den kinesiska caselen trots att de båda caselernabibehöll samma belastningsvärden och högre solbestrålning för den kinesiska caselen.Detta kan förklaras av skillnaden i modulpriser vid simulering genom PVsyst därinvesteringskostnaden för den svenska PV-modulen (elektrisk komponent) var ungefär3,6 gånger större än den för kinesiska, vilket innebär att PVsyst antar ett störremodulområde för svensk modul och därmed mer energiproduktion. Men när det kom tillvärmeenergiproduktionen, var det möjligt att anta olika samlarfall och följaktligen valdesett område på 7m2 för det svenska perspektivet medan ett område på 4m2 har beaktatsför den kinesiska och värmevärden för användbar energi där jämfördes sedan med dekrav som krävs för uppvärmning i båda fallen. Slutligen drog avhandlingen slutsatsen attdet inte fanns något krav på att ha ett integrerat DH-nätverk i de fristående husen ochdärför kan det vara mer fördelaktigt att ha ett integrerat DH och solsystem i tätarebebyggda bostadsområden.

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