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.