Rapid development of an FPGA controller for a Wind / Photovoltaic power system

The efficient control of distributed energy resources (DERs) is the key for the optimization of renewable energy supplies used in stand-alone micro-generators. A wind / photovoltaic combined power generator, with the possibility to incorporate a hydrogen fuel cell as energy backup or connect the system to the grid, in order to achieve reliable, self-sufficient, continuous power to variable sources and loads, is the structure tackled in this research project and the control of the integrated Wind/PV system is the scope of this paper. The research work takes advantage of the new generation of computer aided design (CAD) tools, able to generate a fast hardware implementation from synthesizable high level modelling code. The proposed system uses DK5, from agility design solutions, design and modelling software environment based on Handel-C programming language. The research led to the rapid development, prototyping and testing of an FPGA based controller for the integrated renewable power generation system.