Design and construction of a low cost photovoltaic generator for laboratory investigations

Author

Elgendy, Mohammed A. ; Sundaram, V. Meenakshi ; Surati, B.U.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Newcastle Univ., Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

fYear

2013

fDate

11-13 June 2013

Firstpage

79

Lastpage

83

Abstract

The dependence on weather conditions of photovoltaic (PV) systems coerces a development of an indoor PV generator using sun-rays simulator to study the output characteristics of the solar panel and to evaluate maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. In this paper, a 40Wp low cost PV generator is constructed using a solar panel illuminated by switched halogen lamps. The output characteristics of the PV generator are investigated under different panel illumination levels. Both constant voltage and perturb and observe (P&O) MPPT control schemes are examined. The different operation modes of standalone PV applications with battery backup are emulated utilizing a dc-dc converter based power conditioning unit with a resistive and battery loads.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; lighting; maximum power point trackers; photovoltaic power systems; MPPT control schemes; PV generator; battery backup; dc-dc converter; indoor PV generator; laboratory investigations; low cost photovoltaic generator; maximum power point tracking algorithms; output characteristics; panel illumination; perturb and observe MPPT control; photovoltaic systems; solar panel; standalone PV applications; sun-rays simulator; Arrays; Batteries; Generators; Lighting; Maximum power point trackers; Temperature measurement; Voltage measurement; Battery storage; Maximum power point tracking; Photovoltaic generator; Power conditioning; Standalone PV systems;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Clean Electrical Power (ICCEP), 2013 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Alghero

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-4429-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCEP.2013.6586970

Filename

6586970