Projects:2020s2-7531 Wide Bandgap Device in PV Systems
Contents
Wide Bandgap device in PV systems
2. Team members
- Abdulrahmen Alzeer
- Kunqiang (Edward) Zhang
- Bradley Slape
3. Supervisors
* Dr. Nesimi Ertegrul * Dr Said Al-Sarawi
Introduction
This project looks improve the efficiency of solar PV arrays through the use of designing a novel solar arrangement that uses wide bandgap (WBG) transistors to eliminate the use of blocking diodes. Additionally, these cells will be paired with a DC/DC convertor, as a means to perform maximum powerpoint tracking (MPPT).
Project team
Project students
- Abdulrahman Alzeer
- Bradley Slape
- Kunqiang (Edward) Zhang
Supervisors
- Dr. Nesimi Ertugrul
- Dr. Said Al-Sarawi
Objectives
- Investigating WBG device with non-inverting buck/boost converter
- Cell-level reconfigure PV array
- Maximum power point tracking algorithm design
- Build up all prototype with all the components above
Background
WBG devices
the development of Wide bandgap devices are an evolution of transistor technology. there are two emerging technology, Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET. These offer faster switching (up to 10x) with a low series resistance, allowing for the miniaturisation of power electronics. Furthermore these devices can handle higher temperatures without the need for active cooling.
Reconfigurable solar PV
A conventional PV module typically contains a number of bypass diodes that connect strings of cells together, these diodes will block these cells from producing power in shaded conditions. however this will come at a loss, with the series resistance and losses associated with the diode having a parasitic drain on the device. The introduction of WBG transistors into the array of cells will allow for the connection of these modules such that shaded cells can isolated from the layout, and any other productive cells can be placed in either series or parallel.
For the purpose of developing a proof of concept, 4 relays were used in place of the WBG transistors to allow for both normally-on and normally function.
DC-DC Converter
GaN technology has been selected to build the project DC-DC converter. A synchronous DC-DC converter has been built and experimental data have been gathered and compared with simulated data to verify the model we have developed in the computer simulation. The results show correlation between them.
Ltspice has been used as it is free and some of the models used are available in the library of the software.
MPPT Algorithm
The maximum power point tracking algorithm is used to adjust the output voltage of the PV array so that the output power of the whole system is always maintained near the maximum power point. The choice of algorithm should be considered from various aspects, such as efficiency, simplicity, convergence speed and ability to track under partial shading conditions.
Method
The project is been divide into three phase, simulation, implementation and prototype. In the simulation phase the team use SimuLink as the simulation environment. In SimuLink, the team is able to test the electronic component and the algorithm code under ideal condition.
Results
The MPPT algorithm has been successfully implemented with a buck converter on simulink. The results show that the MPPT algorithm maintain the system output around the maximum power point.
Conclusion
References
[1] a, b, c, "Simple page", In Proceedings of the Conference of Simpleness, 2010.
[2] Nesimi Ertugrul, WBG Project Description LP2000200443 Final, 2020
[3] Sabrina Titri et al, A new MPPT controller based on the Ant colony optimisation algorithm for Photovoltaic systems under partial shading conditions, Applied Soft Computing, Volume 58, Pages 465-479, September 2017
[4] R. Kalatehjari, A. S. A. Rashid, N. Ali, and M. Hajihassani, "The Contribution of Particle Swarm Optimization to Three-Dimensional Slope Stability Analysis," Swarm Intelligence and Its Applications, June 2014.
[5] N. Ertugrul and D. Abbott, "DC is the Future [Point of View]," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 108, no. 5, pp. 615-624, May 2020, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2020.2982707.
