Hybrid Renewable Energy System with Wind Turbine and PV Panels
Abstract
In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the world's heavy
dependence on fossil-based fuels and the pollution caused by such fuels. This has sparked
an increased interest in the use of other renewable sources of energy. In particular,
electricity generation from wind and photovoltaic energy has seen a rapid growth in recent
years. One of the most widely used electric machines used in wind energy conversion
systems is the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) which requires a source and power
converter system to feed variable frequency AC voltage to its rotor. Power converter
schemes currently used with DFIGs, however, do not address issues such as the absence
power factor correction in the rectifier (without complicated control loops), soft-switching
in the rectifier, and the possibility of integrating photovoltaic power into the system to
provide rotor injection power.
This thesis presents a hybrid system in which the rotor power can be drawn either
from three-phase AC mains or a photovoltaic (PV) panel-battery combination. While
drawing power from AC mains, an AC-DC converter with soft switching and power factor
correction is used. While supplying rotor injection power from PV panels, one of the
MOSFET switches of the AC-DC converter will be used for boosting the PV panel output
voltage. Various stages of the system are implemented and the details of implementation
and results are discussed for each stage. Suggestions for future research are also offered.