| Description |
One of the advantages offered by renewable energy sources is their potential to provide sustainable electricity in areas not served by the conventional power grid. The growing market for renewable energy technologies has resulted in a rapid growth in the need for power electronics. Most of the renewable energy technologies produce DC power, and hence, power electronics and control equipment are required to convert the DC into AC power. DC/AC inverters are used to perform this conversion. There are 2 types of inverters: stand-alone and grid-connected. The 2 types have several similarities, but are different in terms of control. Thus, an important part of this project includes focussing on the design and control of both types of DC/AC inverters for PV/Wind/Fuel Cell based hybrid renewable energy systems. It is also important to note that energy storage is an essential part of any renewable energy system. A suitable energy storage system (ESS) forms the essential interface for the purpose of overall management of energy. Thus, another part of this project will focus on the appropriate modeling, design, and control of energy storage devices such as high energy density batteries and high power density ultra-capacitors. The possibility of using flywheel energy storage will also be investigated. |